The core business of ING private banking is assisting private business owners during take overs. One of the problems of small, privately owned businesses is that owners often have great difficulty in letting go of their businesses when the time comes. For ING Private Banking, however, facilitating the sales and transfer of these businesses is a core activity. So, rather than sponsor the usual golf tournament, director of marketing Jan Sinnema , actually after reading book of Pine & Gilmore, developed the concept of a theme dinner centered on “how to let go of your business”.

At these dinners ING sets the stage for what Jan Sinnema calls “a relevant emotional encounter”, an almost therapeutic setting whereby every client will go as deep and as far in talking about himself as he likes or wants to. It creates a safe environment where clients can freely speak about their feelings and emotions about something so very closely to their heart. They then connect to and share with other people in very similar circumstances, including past clients who tell their own stories about how they did indeed manage to let go of their business..
The special role ING’s personnel is to not be there, to not commercially act! Only the director of the regional ING branch is allowed to attend, serving in the role of dinner host. Sinnema had great difficulty convincing his organization of this, but it was the only way to create trust with its clients. And the results have been stunning, with many participants relating how a dinner changed their lives – and with ING gaining many new business opportunities.