In theory, leading a banking and lending sales team should be simple: set the strategy, support your team, and drive growth.
In reality, it’s much more complicated. Clients expect tailored, high-touch experiences. Regulators like the FDIC, CFPB, and OCC expect full compliance. Meanwhile, new rules—from heightened UDAAP scrutiny to evolving CRA modernisation efforts—add even more complexity. At the same time, the systems your team relies on often slow things down instead of speeding them up.
Commercial lenders can’t find approved language. Small business bankers waste time digging through systems for the right rate sheet. And client advisors bounce between multiple systems to create basic proposals.
You want to move quickly and stay compliant. But how do you help support personalisation without putting compliance at risk?
From governance and personalisation to coaching and measurement, banking sales leaders face no shortage of choices. Here are four key decisions that shape success and how Highspot can help you make the right call.
How will you give your team fast access to compliant content?
Whether it’s a commercial banker structuring a mid-market loan or a relationship manager preparing for a portfolio review, your team needs to move fast. Clients expect quick answers. Competitors are waiting to step in. And the longer a deal drags on, the more likely it is to fall through.
But there’s a problem. Instead of focusing on clients, your team is stuck digging through folders, email threads, or outdated systems to find the right rate sheet or product overview. Some even fall back on content they saved to their desktop months ago.
And when the FDIC or CFPB audits your firm, you need a full record of what your team sent, when, and to whom. But if your content is scattered across systems and stored locally, even simple requests become stressful fire drills.
So how do you fix it?
- Let your team manage their own materials. While this option seems flexible, it often leads to missing files, incomplete records, and risky compliance gaps.
- Rely on training and manual audits. Training helps, but even the best teams cut corners when they’re under pressure to hit goals.
- Centralise and govern your content. Success. With one unified platform for GTM enablement, your team gets instant access to current and approved materials. You can also track every interaction automatically.
Highspot gives your team the tools to move faster without cutting corners. With Copilot Instant Answers, they can ask simple questions—like, “What’s the rate sheet for small business loans?”—and get the right document in seconds. Meanwhile, version control and access logs keep everything audit-ready, while CRM integration ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
Instead of scrambling when compliance needs documentation, your team is covered with content that’s a simple click or query away.
How will you help your team balance personalisation with compliance?
Clients today want more than a standard brochure or templated follow-up. They expect materials that speak directly to their goals, business, and financial situation.
Personalisation wins deals, but it’s risky in a regulated environment, especially when regulators are honing in on misleading claims and outdated language. A mortgage banker might tweak a proposal but accidentally remove a required disclosure. A relationship manager supporting a high-net-worth client might customise a product sheet but use outdated language. The intentions are good, but even small errors can cause big problems.
So what’s the right approach?
- Lock everything down. You could forbid edits entirely, but that leaves your team with generic content that doesn’t convert.
- Allow full customisation. Flexibility sounds good but can lead to errors, fines, and regulatory scrutiny.
- Use structured personalisation. Success! Your team can customise materials within guardrails that keep disclosures intact and language up to date.
With Highspot, your team can generate custom materials in minutes using templates that protect sensitive language. No more edits or deletions that accidentally cross the line. And when it’s time to share those materials, your team can create secure, client-facing portals to drop in relevant documents and send personalised notes in one polished, professional space.
Instead of workarounds and risk, your team gets the freedom to create the compliant, tailored experiences your clients want.
How will you build a stronger team without adding risk?
Your team wants to move quickly, tailor their approach, and build stronger client relationships. But when one misstep can violate compliance, hesitation creeps in. As a result, deals stall, confidence drops, and clients lose trust.
Your team doesn’t need more pressure. They need better support.
So how do you provide what they need?
- Hold an annual compliance training session. This approach is okay, but your team will forget most of what they learn within weeks. And with regulations from agencies like the FDIC and CFPB changing often, annual training isn’t enough.
- Rely on managers to catch compliance issues. This approach creates gaps, adds risk, and leads to inconsistent coaching across teams.
- Embed coaching into daily workflows. Success! Your team gets timely guidance as they work without delays or extra steps.
With Highspot, coaching becomes part of the selling process. Sales playbooks give your team clear direction at every stage, helping them know what to say and how to say it. And when a banker or relationship manager has a question, just-in-time learning delivers answers instantly—whether it’s a product spec, a compliance detail, or how to position a solution.
Consistent, in-the-moment coaching leads to better conversations, stronger engagement, and fewer compliance slip-ups. Instead of chasing down answers or waiting for a training refresh, your team gets the help they need exactly when they need it.
How will you know what’s working and what’s not?
As a sales leader, you need to grow the pipeline, shorten sales cycles, and keep your team compliant. But without the right data, you can’t tell what’s working or what’s putting your firm at risk.
So what’s your plan?
- Rely on anecdotal feedback. Anecdotes are useful, but they don’t tell the whole story. Instead, you’re left with blind spots and missed red flags.
- Look only at revenue. Hard numbers are great, but they don’t tell if your team is using approved materials or following the right process.
- Use analytics to track engagement, content use, and compliance. Success! With unified analytics and performance tracking, you get a complete view of what’s working and where your team needs support.
Highspot eliminates guesswork by showing you exactly which materials your small business bankers, mortgage specialists, and relationship managers use. You can also see how clients engage, if your team is compliant, and what top performers do differently.
Copilot+ takes these insights further by learning from real meetings and activity to show what’s working, why, and what to do next. For example, your highest-performing specialists might consistently use a specific pitch deck other specialists overlook. Copilot+ can surface that pattern and recommend the deck to the rest of the team.
You can’t optimise what you can’t see. With the right insights, you can fine-tune your strategy and help your team reduce risk and close more deals.
Are you helping your team balance personalisation and compliance?
With the right tools and systems, client-facing teams don’t have to choose between building stronger relationships and staying compliant. They can do both, with more confidence and less risk.
When Allianz Trade centralised their content and enablement with Highspot, they:
- Increased quota attainment by 20%
- Improved win rates by 10%
- Saved reps 15 hours per week
Make content uncertainty and risky edits a thing of the past. Learn how Highspot can help your banking and lending teams personalise at scale while staying compliant.
