A Disappointed Banker

[~bs]

Several years ago (before I got into my current industry), I had a "bridge job" as an outbound sales rep for a big bank. As you could imagine, I did not like the job very much and was not very good at it. But hey it was only temporary.

The pressure to sell was CRAZY! In fact, we had quotas based on points. Selling a home equity product netted the highest amount of points, but of course the process of selling those products was really long and not simple. Even if you did manage to sell a home equity product, the amount of points that you were awarded was enough to only cover one day. On credit card campaigns, you would need to sell 10 to 15 to hit your quota. For car loan campaigns, about 5 usually did the trick.

The quotas were so unrealistic that people were constantly leaving, and training classes were constantly being held. It is a tough job. Not saying I would buy anything if one of them called me today, though

that's the sad thing about all the companies going corporate nowadays, everyone driving to generate higher and higher year over year returns for the stockholders. It basically is killing their staff. I know a fair number of people that works for the banks. Versus locally owned or family owned banks and FCUs. Seems like as long as the owners generate a reasonable return of hundreds or low millions, they're happy, and willing to keep their staff happy.

[Fishindude77]

I don’t get the negative comments. This is just a hard working banker trying to hustle up some new business, good for him. If you don’t have business coming in the door then you better get out there and try to get some.

I prefer to do my banking with “people” as opposed to all of these online banking options.

[disneysteve]

I have to disagree about not buying anything where I am contacted with a cold call. I wouldn't automatically discard any such call.

I was in a sales oriented position for 24 years.

One area that I worked in was physician recruitment. I cold-called lots of physicians about relocating here.

That's entirely different. Being a headhunter/recruiter is a whole different situation. You are "selling" in a way but you're not trying to push some product or service of questionable value on an unsuspecting customer. I know plenty of people who got their jobs through cold calls. Heck, I got my last job that way. I had left my previous practice. A doctor in the area who was looking to hire someone got my name from a sales rep and he gave me a call. I wasn't interested at first but agreed to meet with him. I ended up taking the job and staying for 17 years.

[disneysteve]

I don’t get the negative comments. This is just a hard working banker trying to hustle up some new business, good for him. If you don’t have business coming in the door then you better get out there and try to get some.

That's not the reality, though. They aren't making those calls because they are wise businessmen. They are making them, as several of us have said, because their job forces them to. There is a tremendous amount of pressure to sell credit cards and loan products. They can and will lose their jobs if they don't meet their quotas. And the turnover/burnout rate is sky high because of the stress it causes.

[TexasHusker]

That's entirely different. Being a headhunter/recruiter is a whole different situation. You are "selling" in a way but you're not trying to push some product or service of questionable value on an unsuspecting customer.

"Questionable value" is a highly subjective term.

[disneysteve]

"Questionable value" is a highly subjective term.

True, but calling to tell me about a legitimate job opportunity is entirely different than calling to try and put me into more debt.

I get emails every single day from physician recruiters, snail mail at least a couple of times a week, and calls probably twice a month. I'm not in the market at the moment but if I ever am, I'd be very thankful for that contact.

[TexasHusker]

That's not the reality, though. They aren't making those calls because they are wise businessmen. They are making them, as several of us have said, because their job forces them to. There is a tremendous amount of pressure to sell credit cards and loan products. They can and will lose their jobs if they don't meet their quotas. And the turnover/burnout rate is sky high because of the stress it causes.

Sales folks are paid to make sales. In addition to physician recruitment, I once was also was paid to drum up lucrative managed care contracts with good payors (insurance companies, etc.).

At the beginning of one year, I was told "we really need to you to get contracts with ABC Company and XYZ Company this year. And we will pay you a $100K bonus to do it." All the big cheese told me there was "no way" I was going to be able to get either of these contracts, much less both.

Guess what? At the end of the year, I had an extra $100K. Pressure? Darn right. I got on an airplane at 5am once to travel across the country to see one of those companies in person because they wouldn't talk to me on the phone. I had no assurance that I could even get past the receptionist. But I ended up getting the account.

Good sales folks earn as much or more as good doctors and lawyers.

[TexasHusker]

True, but calling to tell me about a legitimate job opportunity is entirely different than calling to try and put me into more debt.

You consider it of "questionable value" because you automatically consider debt "bad." That's perfectly fine, but consider that others feel quite the opposite.

[disneysteve]

You consider it of "questionable value" because you automatically consider debt "bad."

Not at all. I have a mortgage, a HELOC, and several credit cards. At various times in the past I've had student loans, both for myself and more recently for my daughter. I've had a few car loans over the years. I think debt, used properly, is a great tool.

But never have I taken on new debt because I got a cold call. It's always been after I did my research and sought out the best deal for my needs at the time.

[disneysteve]

Sales folks are paid to make sales. In addition to physician recruitment, I once was also was paid to drum up lucrative managed care contracts with good payors (insurance companies, etc.).

At the beginning of one year, I was told "we really need to you to get contracts with ABC Company and XYZ Company this year. And we will pay you a $100K bonus to do it." All the big cheese told me there was "no way" I was going to be able to get either of these contracts, much less both.

Guess what? At the end of the year, I had an extra $100K. Pressure? Darn right. I got on an airplane at 5am once to travel across the country to see one of those companies in person because they wouldn't talk to me on the phone. I had no assurance that I could even get past the receptionist. But I ended up getting the account.

Good sales folks earn as much or more as good doctors and lawyers.

That's great. Sales are a fact of life, for sure.

Although I don't do anything based on cold calls, I have hired people who rang my door bell. That is typically a contractor of some sort who is doing work in the neighborhood. Either last year or the year before, a guy rang the bell who was working on my block sealing driveways. He gave me a story (which I suspect was BS) that he still had coating material in the tank and if he didn't use it that day, he had to trash it. I took a walk down the block to the house he had just finished and could see that he had done a nice job so I had him do our driveway which was badly in need of resealing. It turned out great and I've had no trouble with it since.

[Fishindude77]

That's not the reality, though. They aren't making those calls because they are wise businessmen. They are making them, as several of us have said, because their job forces them to. There is a tremendous amount of pressure to sell credit cards and loan products. They can and will lose their jobs if they don't meet their quotas. And the turnover/burnout rate is sky high because of the stress it causes.

I think you’re making a lot of assumptions here. The banker in question was trying to generate some business from a good client with good history, offering everyday reasonable products; home improvement loan or auto loan. You know nothing about this particular bankers job pressures, etc.

Some banks may have these quotas, turnover and burnout you speak of, but I can assure you they all don’t. Silly pressures like that lead to poor underwriting and bad loans which no bank wants.

[disneysteve]

I think you’re making a lot of assumptions here. The banker in question was trying to generate some business from a good client with good history, offering everyday reasonable products; home improvement loan or auto loan. You know nothing about this particular bankers job pressures, etc.

Some banks may have these quotas, turnover and burnout you speak of, but I can assure you they all don’t. Silly pressures like that lead to poor underwriting and bad loans which no bank wants.

You're making assumptions too. How do you know they weren't calling every customer in their database? Why do you assume the products being offered were reasonable? I'd be willing to bet that the rates on the loans he was offering weren't competitive. I know anytime I've checked rates for a mortgage, HELOC, or auto loan, the bank rates were always among the worst.

Realistically, if you were thinking about taking out a new loan, would you do your homework and research a variety of lenders or would you just sign up with the first bank who called you out of the blue?

[Fishindude77]

This is how sales calling works. You make calls on folks consistently enough and eventually you will cross paths with someone in need of your services, that is a good deal for both parties. Sit on your rear in the bank all day and you’re gonna have skinny kids.

[AJ444]

I never do business with cold calls at work or in my personal life. If I desire a service or good, I will seek them out. The higher I move up at work the more cold calls I get.

I may miss out on a diamond in the rough occasionally, but most of the time in my experience cold calls have a markup because you are paying an extra percentage to the person on the phone beyond what the normal territory sales rep makes. I know this from my personal work experience.

[james.hendrickson]

Just wanted to chime in here - everything that's been said on this thread is true.

Where people have to be careful about is in crossing the line. Take the recent Wells Fargo scandal for example. There was so much management pressure to sell loan products that the sales staff couldn't realistically meet their assigned targets.

A lot of this came out in the state and Federal indictments against the bank - the management of some branches had mandated that every single customer who went into the bank would need to purchase 4 or 5 financial products. There was no way the sales staff could meet those numbers.

So, what happened?

A lot of the Wells Fargo staff just simply started signing people up without their knowledge.

This was, naturally, totally illegal, and resulted in the mess that Wells Fargo is in today.

I think we can all agree that a little pick up and hustle is a good thing, and we can all agree that conspiring to violate Federal laws is something altogether not okay.