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To bump up its retail loans portfolio, Bank of Baroda (BoB) plans to put in place a 2,000-strong dedicated sales force, which will supplement the efforts of the branches to push home, auto and personal loans.
Currently, retail loans account for 19 per cent of the public sector bank’s total domestic advances (of ₹2,69,207 crore as of December-end 2016). Comparatively, retail loans account for 30 per cent of total domestic advances (of ₹12,11,628 crore) of India’s largest bank State Bank of India.
Observing that his bank’s retail loans’ share is quite low, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer PS Jayakumar said there is significant opportunity to grow it.
The BoB chief said: “We are building a strong sales engine that will supplement the branches. So, that process we have started now and we hope to have a sales machinery of meaningful size in the next two quarters.
“The sales force will be adjunct to our branches, supporting them in terms of identifying and acquiring customers.”
In this regard, the public sector bank is probably taking a leaf out of large private sector banks, which have dedicated sales teams to sell retail banking products.
BoB has already identified the leader, who will helm the outbound retail sales team. Jayakumar observed that the branches and the sales teams will work in a coordinated and cohesive manner.
Once the leader of the dedicated sales force joins the bank, the feet on the street will be in action in three months’ time.
“The roll out (of the sales force) will be in phases. We have to test the model and make sure it is working. Then the scale up will be quite significant.
“I think, initially our objective is to hit a number of, say, 2,000 and then we will take it forward from there. Initially, it (sales force) will be focused on a few centres (metros) and then we will expand it as time goes by,” explained Jayakumar.
The bank is also putting in place hygiene factors, such as good quality valuers, legal approval processes that are faster, and more number of pre-approved developers.
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