2017 Azbee Awards of Excellence
Category
Print > Feature Article - General Interest > Less Than $3 Million Revenue > Northeast
Awarded to
Steven Cocheo, executive editor & digital content manager
Entry details
Sales Under Scrutiny
Issue date (if applicable):
Publication name: Banking Exchange
Publishing company: Simmons Boardman Publishing Corp.
Website home page: www.BankingExchange.com
Please describe the publication's mission and readership:
To say banking is undergoing a “revolution” overstates the case. Take away the “r” and you have “evolution.” But that understates it. Here is a sample of what banks are up against: On the one hand, they are trying to stay relevant in the digital age by letting customers do their banking using Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant. Easier said than done for most banks who must rely on three big technology suppliers to provide the necessary support. On the other hand, banks still struggle under post-crisis regulations and are hoping a Trump administration will bring some relief. All that and much more are the "sweet spot" of Banking Exchange magazine and its companion website, bankingexchange.com—providing readers with the "competitive intelligence" to succeed. Our primary audience is bankers at roughly 6,000 U.S. commercial and savings banks. In print we reach 27,625 bank executives and managers from small and large banks across the country—42% top management and 47% middle management. In sum, Banking Exchange writers, editors, and contributors strive to do three things in print, online, and in social media: Inform, Assist, Challenge.
Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:
Wells Fargo Bank continues to experience the consequences of a scandal over its consumer banking sales practices. Regulatory penalties and settlements for consumers were just the beginning. The initial story breaking, the congressional hearings, the executive resignations, ongoing revelations—all the makings of a running scandal story about a major institution and its fall from an undeserved reputation for sales expertise.
But what about the scandal’s implications and lessons for the rest of the banking industry? The reflex action of the uninformed was to condemn the roles of all sales in banking. But in the face of competition on multiple fronts, banks actually have no choice but to sell.
And selling is not abusive, when done right. But what’s “done right”?
A special cover story sought to define that—and the appropriate way of compensating sales staff—through interviews with bankers and experts in sales, human resources, and legal compliance. Taking the matter one step further, the article asked, will “robo selling”—such as app-based financial planning—remove the temptation to game the sales process?
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Sales Under Scrutiny
Category
Print > Feature Article - General Interest > Less Than $3 Million Revenue > Northeast
Description
Publication name:
Banking Exchange
Company:
Simmons Boardman Publishing Corp.
Winner Status
- Regional Silver Award
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