I received the following example of a huge listening breakdown that resulted in a $1 million loss.
“There was a huge communication breakdown at the commercial bank that I work at between a sales executive and a portfolio manager. Sales executives make calls to current customers as well as establish new customers. They sell all business-banking products, which include loans up to $2 million. Portfolio managers are responsible for all credit issues that involve a new or existing loan. Any loan package that is presented by a sales executive must have all of the necessary documents for the portfolio manager to process.
A sales executive forwarded a loan package to the portfolio manager for processing. Upon reviewing the request, the portfolio manager detected that there were missing items in the package. She called the sales executive and informed him of the situation and he indicated “he would meet with her as soon as he could clear his schedule.” The portfolio manager also sent the sales executive an email confirming the issue. The loan was then placed in a pending status until the issue was resolved.
Three days later, the sales executive called the portfolio manager to check the status of the loan request. After sharing with him that the loan was still in pending status, the sales executive became very upset and began to yell and scream. His customer had not been contacted within the normal 24-48 hour notification time frame. He quickly called his customer back only to learn that they had gotten a loan from another bank.
Later, the sales executive admitted to the portfolio manager that he did not pay attention during their first telephone conversation nor had he read any of his pending emails. The costs = a $1 million deal to the bank plus an embarrassed sales executive.”
The costs of ineffective listening mount up quickly. LISTENING PAYS!…IF YOU MAKE THE INVESTMENT