A Sales Culture Your Bankers Will Not Have to Fake.
Chris Sund helps community banks build a service-to-sales culture without pressure tactics. Branch staff learn to ask the question that uncovers what a customer needs. Commercial lenders and treasury teams learn to handle “we’re happy with our current bank” with the LAARC method. Leaders learn to coach it. He speaks at state bankers associations, community bank all-staff days and lender retreats.
Where Banks Bring In a Sales Culture Speaker
Most community banks do not have a sales problem. They have a service team that has been told to sell and does not want to be pushy, and a lending team that is good at underwriting and uneasy about asking for the business. Chris works on the conversation in between.
Community Bank All-Staff Days
Tellers, universal bankers, lenders and operations in one room, with one shared way to talk with customers. Built for people who did not sign up to be salespeople.
Commercial Lending & Treasury Retreats
Relationship managers, commercial lenders and treasury teams on winning business from the incumbent bank and expanding relationships.
State Bankers Associations
A convention keynote or breakout for bankers association members. See banking and financial services speaking.
Branch Manager & Retail Leadership
For the people who coach the culture every morning: what to inspect, what to celebrate and how to coach a conversation without a script.
How Do You Build a Sales Culture in a Bank Without Pressure?
Bankers have seen what product quotas pushed onto frontline staff can do to customers and to the people asked to hit them. So when leadership says “sales culture,” a lot of good service people hear “push products,” and they quietly opt out.
Chris reframes the work as service done well: listen all the way through, ask one more question, and offer what the customer actually needs. That is LAARC (Listen, Acknowledge, Ask, Respond, Confirm), and it fits the teller line as well as the commercial lending call. For lenders and treasury teams, LOCKS shows which of five conditions is missing when a relationship will not move from the incumbent bank. Results come from better conversations, not more pressure.
- Service-to-sales without scripts or pressure: one more good question at the teller line
- LAARC for “we’re happy with our current bank,” “your rate is higher” and “switching is too much work”
- LOCKS for commercial relationships and treasury management deals that stall
- What branch managers coach and celebrate, so the culture holds when nobody is watching
- Consistency for lenders and business development officers who hear no more than yes
- Keeping good bankers: why people stay in a branch, and why they leave
Proof: Sales Kickoffs and Objection Sessions
Chris delivered You Are Capable of More: Sales at the Definitive Healthcare Sales Kickoff in Boston, to 800+ sales professionals and leaders. The session covered a consistency system, objection handling through LAARC, rejection resilience, ownership of the number and conviction that transfers.
He teaches the same objection work to business owners and professionals at the emPower Breakfast: at the Sarpy County breakfast, and as the featured speaker at the Lincoln emPower Breakfast on October 15, 2026 with You Are Capable of More: Handle Objections to Achieve Success. He has also taught LAARC at LeadingAge Illinois, which published the method in its annual conference program, and at the POWER Conference.
Chris would be an incredible addition to any live audience. I’ve seen him speak multiple times, including our Sales Kickoff in front of 800+ people, which he crushed. Each time he finds a unique way to connect on both a personal and professional level.
Having started a brand new role in Business Development recently, the timing was perfect. Chris is a great story teller and shared how he was persistent and determined to get what he wanted in his career. I found the focus on “the pause” and how we speak resonated and caused me to pause. Tone, words and even our body language while listening all lead us to the next conversation.
Service-to-Sales, Role by Role
One framework across the bank, used differently in each seat. Before the event Chris asks for the conversations your people find hardest and builds the practice around them.
The Teller Line & Universal Bankers
The Ask step of LAARC, used as service: one more question when a customer mentions a new business, a move or a child heading to college. No product pitch until the customer has said what they need.
Commercial Lenders
“We’re happy with our current bank.” Acknowledge it, then ask what they would change if they could and what happened the last time they needed a fast answer. Respond only to what they name. Usually this is Confidence in You, not price.
Treasury Management
“Switching is too much work.” That is a Kickoff Plan problem in LOCKS. Show the first 30 days: who does what, what changes and when it starts working. People buy the first thirty days.
Branch & Retail Leaders
Coach the conversation, not the cross-sell count. Listen in, ask what the customer said, celebrate the good question. More in How to Motivate a Sales Team.
LOCKS for a Banking Relationship
Five conditions a business owner has to reach before moving accounts from the bank they already use.
Love the Product
Does the owner want what you offer, or only a better rate on one loan?
Own Belief
Do they believe their team can handle the move: new cards, new logins, new payroll file?
Confidence in You
Do they trust you and your bank to answer the phone when something goes wrong?
Kickoff Plan
Can they see the first 30 days of the switch, step by step?
Stakes
What is staying put costing them in time, service or growth? Show both paths side by side.
Programs for Banks and Credit Unions
Every session is customized to your institution, your markets and your year.
You Are Capable of More: Sales
The sales keynote: consistency, rejection resilience, ownership of the number, and two frameworks bankers use the next day.
The LAARC Method
Listen, Acknowledge, Ask, Respond, Confirm. The objection conversation, published by LeadingAge Illinois and written up by Cisive and NAHCR.
The LOCKS Framework
Crack the Code of the Deal: the five conditions a buyer needs before a deal closes.
Sales Training Workshop
A hands-on half day or full day where lenders and branch teams practice both frameworks on real conversations.
Customer Service Keynote
The service side of the same culture: the small moments customers remember.
Sales Leadership
For the managers who coach the culture every day.
Formats
Each program runs as a keynote, a half-day workshop or a full-day workshop. A common all-staff format is the keynote for everyone followed by a working session for lenders or branch managers.
Keynote
Opens or closes the meeting for the whole room, with LAARC and LOCKS built around the objections your people hear most.
Half Day
The keynote plus practice. Small groups role-play LAARC on real objections and run LOCKS against live files or relationships.
Full Day
A full day for a sales team, or for the managers who will coach the frameworks after the event.
Who Books This Session
Related pages: AI for Banks & Credit Unions · Banking & Financial Services Speaker · Credit Union Keynote Speaker · Mortgage & Lending Sales Speaker · Real Estate Keynote Speaker · Insurance Keynote Speaker · How to Increase Sales · How to Close More Deals · How to Handle Price Objections
What Bank Planners Ask
Does Chris have banking experience?
No, and he says so. He does not speak to lending policy, products or compliance. His subject is the sales and service conversation and the leaders who coach it, built on frameworks he has taught to sales teams including 800+ sellers at the Definitive Healthcare sales kickoff.
Will this feel like pressure selling to our frontline staff?
No. The whole approach is listening and asking better questions, then offering only what the customer needs. Service people who dislike being pushy usually find LAARC is how they already want to work.
Does it work for commercial lenders and treasury teams?
Yes. Lenders get LAARC for the incumbent-bank objection and LOCKS for relationships that stall. Treasury teams get the Kickoff Plan: making a switch feel manageable.
Can it run at a community bank all-staff day?
Yes. The keynote works for tellers, lenders and operations in the same room, and many banks add a working session for lenders or branch managers in the afternoon.
Does Chris speak at bankers association conventions?
Yes, as a general-session keynote or a breakout. See banking and financial services speaking and association conference speaking.
Can every banker get a copy of the book?
Yes. Banks often give You Are Capable of More to every employee or every branch manager. See bulk book orders.
You Are Capable of More
The bestselling book behind the keynote, and the 2026 Paris Book Festival winner in the How-To category. Ten principles for closing the gap between what a team is producing and what it is actually capable of.
Banks often give a copy to every branch manager, or to the whole staff after an all-staff day. Bulk pricing and signed editions are available.
He Runs a Relationship Business Too
Chris is President & COO of Uniti Med and GQR Healthcare and COO of Nebula. He has spent the past decade in healthcare staffing, a commission-driven, relationship-driven sales business where producers can leave for a competitor any week.
He took Uniti Med from startup to one of the largest healthcare staffing companies in the US: 10x revenue growth on the core brand, #3 on the Inc. Regionals list of the fastest-growing companies in the Midwest, and a Fortune Best Workplaces award along the way.
Before healthcare he spent ten years in restaurants and beverage, finishing as head of sales and marketing for a brewery, where he got his product into the biggest retailer in the country by showing the buyer what saying no was costing him. That is the Stakes letter of LOCKS. He is the bestselling author of You Are Capable of More, a Maxwell Leadership Certified coach, and writes for Inc. and Forbes.
Stages I Have Spoken On
Where Sales Audiences Have Heard Chris
Kickoffs, breakfasts and conferences where Chris has taught objection handling and sales performance.
Definitive Healthcare SKOBoston, MA · 800+ sellersemPower Breakfast LincolnOct 2026 · Handling ObjectionsemPower Breakfast Sarpy CountyHandling ObjectionsLeadingAge IllinoisPublished the LAARC MethodPOWER ConferenceOmaha, NEBeatStars Company MeetingVirtual · May 2026Also: Banking · Mortgage & Lending · All Sales Speaking · See all speaking engagements →
Bring Chris to Your Bank
Tell Chris about your institution, your teams and where the sales and service conversation gets stuck. You’ll get a fast, straight answer on fit and availability.
Check Availability & FeesResponse within one business day · Speaker kit, bio & headshots