I got a call from a bank who wanted me to present a seminar. I love getting incoming leads! My company is blessed with lots of them, but this one was different.
My seminars are usually conducted in front of a live audience at some gathering place: hotel, meeting room, or theater. I see the audience. They see me. I hear the audience. They hear me. I feel the audience. They feel me (emotionally). It’s part of the magic of a live performance.
This particular inquiry was about doing a webinar. It was, as they say in the talk-show business, a “first time caller.” But more interestingly, they did not want this webinar for themselves or internal purposes; they wanted an online video webinar for their customers. Cool.
As I got deeper into the conversation, I found out their business philosophy behind wanting to do this seminar, and it is for that reason I am sharing this information with you.
The customer, the bank, is the Nevada State Bank, with primary offices in Las Vegas and branch offices throughout the region. Their prime objective was to help, and strengthen their customer’s business in these economic times. In short they have poured all of their marketing resources, and most of their advertising budget, into providing value to their customers.
Why? Their strategy is help customers first and they will remain loyal. And because of their online banking capability, they are not limited to local customers. Favorable corporate laws and their Las Vegas location has attracted customers from all over the US.
Incredible, unheard of, unprecedented – and I jumped at the chance.
I will admit to you that it’s awkward giving a presentation to a camera. I will use slides and impromptu dialogue so it will be very similar to what I would normally do if I was face to face with the audience. But as you can imagine, a first time with anything has its learning curve, and the associated risks that go along with it.
To help me prepare and witness a run through, their two chief marketers, Tom Sweet and Robert Richardson, flew to Charlotte.
On a side note, I have spent double the amount of time preparing for this event to make sure that it will go off without a hitch, and that the information is transferable to each online participant.
But let me go back to my original WOW! Think for a moment what you are doing for YOUR customers. Think for a moment about how much money you are spending on advertising and sales promotion, rather than trying to help your present customers build their business.
My bet is you’re spending 100 cents out of a dollar on yourselves, and not a penny on the people who are providing you with 100% of your revenue. What Nevada State Bank is doing is a remarkable, precedent-setting process that every one of you should be employing. They are providing a seminar for their customers, not for their salespeople — but their salespeople and the bank will benefit from it.
Now is the time for you to come to the aid of your customers. Now is the time when you can enact a value-based marketing strategy that will lead to a profit-based selling strategy as the economy (slowly) recovers.
The webinar will be broadcast this Thursday, February 25th, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. PST. It will be loaded with information that will help you build your business. It is offered at no charge, with no catch. Just register and reap the rewards. To reserve your “seat,” go to: www.nsbank.com/webevent/
If you are interested in learning more about this marketing/sales strategy, go to www.gitomer.com and enter the words CUSTOMER WELLNESS in the GitBit box.
