Special Treatment Often Works Better Than Money

When it comes to solving people problems, special treatment often works far better than money. Let me give you an example: A senior vice-president of a bank for whom I was doing some consulting came to me one day crying the blues.  His concern was that some of the competing banks had decided to aggressively go after some of the large depositors who did business with his branch banks located in several wealthy retirement communities.  The way in which these competing banks were trying to lure these wealthy customers away was by offering them significantly higher interest rates if they would switch banks.  The senior vice-president went on to say he felt that the only way he could hang onto these very important customers was to match or beat the higher rates being offered by his competitors.  He was reluctant to do this, however, because it would be expensive and it would probably trigger a price war that would eventually result in none of the competitors making any money.

I suggested that if he didn’t want to lose these valuable customers, he’d have to give them a reason to stay.  I went on to tell him that matching the competition on interest was one way to do this, but it was probably not getting at the real reason these people were leaving.  I pointed out that a very important self-interest of elderly wealthy people was to be treated in special ways that singled them out as being wealthy.  I further suggested that, given their ages, probably all of these people had more than enough money to last them for the rest of their lives, so a few dollars more was not likely to be a long-term motivator of their behavior.

In order to engage these wealthy depositors’ self-interest, I suggested that he focus his efforts on giving them some very special attention and basically ignore the interest rate increases being offered by the competition.  What we eventually came up was with a program to organize gala events for these wealthy depositors on a quarterly basis – elegant afternoon tea parties, for example.  These parties were announced to the targeted customers using engraved invitations.  The tea and hors d’oeuvres were served with fine china and silver.  In addition, the president of the bank and several of the officers were on hand at each of these events to mingle with the guests.

These events have been a smashing success.  Instead of losing any of these elderly wealthy customers, the bank actually began to attract new customers as the result of referrals from people who had attended some of the parties.  This was truly Win-Win in action: the customers got what they wanted – special treatment that appealed to their self-interest and the senior vice-president got what he wanted, in that he was able to hang onto these customers without having to match the interest rates being offered by the competition.  As you can see, special treatment really does pay off.

 Review:

1. What was the bank vice president’s self-interest?  To hang on to his wealthy clients without having to pay higher interest rates.
2. Who stood between him and success or failure?  His wealthy clients.
3. What was his wealthy clients’ self-interest?  Special treatment that singled them out as being wealthy.
4. What was the vice president’s plan for connecting his self-interest with that of his wealthy clients?  Exclusive gala events announced with engraved invitations.

This technique can be used to get other people excited about going the extra mile for you in all sorts of situations. All you have to do is figure out the self-interest of the people who stand between you and success or failure and connect it with yours.  As you will see, this method is really simple, but the results can be really extraordinary.  Next week, we’ll look at a different example.

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