The Banking sector in Central and Eastern Europe has experienced a period of rapid change and growth. This has encouraged foreign banks to enter the market and lead to the founding of many new banks. Strategies for expansion in the region have resulted in a great deal of amalgamation, creating larger and stronger players, while a number of national banks have moved into foreign ownership.
Banks in the region have been quick to exploit the advantages of the latest technology, and product portfolios too have expanded to meet the needs of customers growing rapidly in sophistication - everything is in place for a period of rapid growth and profitability.
There is however, one exception to this generally positive scenario. Many banks are finding their expansion plans hindered by a lack of the selling skills needed to turn growth strategies into reality. This is perhaps not too surprising given the lack of suitable role models to copy, as organisations struggle to bring about the levels of behaviour change needed to produce real improvements in sales results.
Huthwaite was among the first western training companies to get involved in the region, setting up our first partnership in Poland over ten years ago. Today, our office in Poland generates the highest proportion of its revenue from the financial sector. Since those early steps into the Central and Eastern European market we have expanded to include offices across the region.
We have found that our research into the skills used by successful salespeople, and our long experience in the European banking sector, have been crucial to our success in helping banks in Central and Eastern Europe to rise to the skills challenges they face. Bringing about real and lasting behaviour change has always been our goal, in any training initiative we have undertaken. Understanding what successful banking sellers do, is a key step in the process, but helping others to develop those strategies and skills and embedding the new skills in the organisation are the real secrets of success.
As part of our expansion in the region we have partnered with Able Training International who have been working with banks across the region for many years. We believe this partnership will make us one of the strongest suppliers of sales training to the financial sector in the region. To mark the launch of this partnership we will be holding an event for senior managers from banks in Central and eastern Europe to demonstrate Huthwaite's sales models, and the methodology we employ to bring measurable results from our training interventions.
