The Accredited Banking Professional™ (ABP) Certification is a 10-month development program that gives your bankers the complete architecture for winning your bank's Top 100 next most profitable prospects.
It shows them how to:
Your bankers become equipped to win against four or five desperate competitors — even when those competitors undercut your loan pricing by 250 basis points.
They discover how to create so much measurable value that price isn't the deciding factor. In fact, price may not even rank among the prospect's top five considerations.
That's why our CEOs often call ABP graduates their "super bankers."
You get one chance to impress an affluent prospect. Give your bankers the architecture to make that first meeting impossible to forget.
Who This Is For
This isn't a training refresh for bankers who need something to do between calls.
ABP is built for banks that already have talent worth sharpening — bankers your CEO would bet on, if only they had the architecture to match their ambition.
Because of the depth of coaching each cohort requires, we run a limited number of ABP cohorts each year, with a limited number of seats in each one. That's not a marketing device. It's the same reason a surgeon doesn't train forty residents at once.
Tell us about your bank and we'll walk you through how the next cohort works — and whether there's a seat in it for you.
Many Accredited Banking Professionals achieve close rates of at least 85% with carefully selected Top 100 next most profitable prospects — many of whom were very happy with their current banks and didn't come looking for a new one.
ABPs don't settle for one loan or one account. They systematically uncover and win the entire relationship — often generating 7, 8, 9, or more cross-sales on the second appointment.
Two bankers brought in $20 million in deposits while still practicing the ABP system — including $14 million in non-interest-bearing deposits.
Give Them the Architecture to Win.
Most bankers understand banking products.
But do they possess the business acumen and vocabulary required to sit across from an affluent business owner, understand how that company really makes money, recognize opportunities others miss, and lead a conversation that earns the entire relationship?
ABP gives bankers command of the essential language of business — business structures, taxation, profitability, cash flow, and the financial decisions that matter most to successful owners.
But that's only the beginning. Technical banking knowledge alone doesn't create a super banker.
Your bankers must know what to look for, what to ask, and how to help the prospect identify and quantify the financial impact your bank can create.
The prospect — not the banker — has to reach the conclusion:
"Your additional pricing is only a small fraction of the financial value you'll create for my business."
That's the power of helping prospects build the business case themselves. They may argue with your banker's claims. They rarely argue with their own logic.
Most bankers still try to win business on likability, relationship, and a little charm. They talk about service. They quote a rate. They feel victorious holding an extra 25 basis points.
Meanwhile, four or five desperate competitors are willing to undercut them by 250.
ABPs compete differently. They uncover opportunities that can save or make the prospect substantially more money — or keep the prospect from losing it. Then they guide the prospect in quantifying that value.
The prospect sees your premium pricing for what it actually is: a small fraction of the financial value your bank will create.
Price stops being the primary decision. Executed correctly, it may not even rank in the top five.
That's how you win the entire relationship without giving away your margin.
Too many bankers walk into the most valuable opportunities in their markets armed with little more than product knowledge and a promise of great service.
That's enough for a friendly conversation. It is not enough to compel a successful business owner to uproot an entire banking relationship.
ABP gives your bankers a proprietary architecture for identifying the right prospects, building a powerful Reputational Equity Builder™, securing the appointment, making the first meeting unforgettable, and returning prepared to close the entire relationship at premium pricing.
No winging it. No "checking in." No hoping the prospect happens to be unhappy.
Your Top 100 prospects are far too valuable to become practice targets.
ABP helps your team identify the Top 100 prospects most capable of becoming highly profitable, full-relationship customers. Instead of calling on whoever comes to mind, your bankers find the businesses and affluent households with the greatest profit potential — including those holding substantial non-interest-bearing deposits — and pursue them systematically, one after another.
The best prospects aren't waiting for a new banker to call. They already have a bank. They may love that bank. They may have no intention of leaving.
ABP's proprietary Reputational Equity Builder™ system changes the conversation before it begins. By the time your banker calls, the prospect already knows something meaningful about your bank, respects what it represents, and is intrigued by what your banker may bring.
Your banker is no longer making a cold call. Your banker is entering a conversation the prospect already wants to have.
Your banker may get one real opportunity with an affluent prospect. If that meeting feels ordinary, the prospect kicks it to the curb — and probably won't grant another opportunity for at least a decade.
ABP gives bankers a proprietary architecture for a first meeting that's markedly different from the typical bank sales call: insightful, valuable, business-focused, worthy of the prospect's complete attention.
Within the first two minutes, prospects recognize this isn't another sales call. They tell their assistants to hold their calls. They lean in.
ABPs don't push products. They create business cases. They guide prospects in identifying financial opportunities, quantifying their impact, and reaching their own conclusions about the value of changing banks.
By the end of the first meeting, a prospect who had no intention of switching is ready to see what moving the entire relationship could mean.
Your bankers learn a system that helps the prospect quantify the money your bank can save them, make them, or keep them from losing. When that value dramatically exceeds the pricing difference, rate stops controlling the decision.
"Our lenders don’t even try or ask to meet the pricing of the competition. They know they’re worth more. A few years ago, they wouldn’t have believed they were worth the extra money."
—Karen Miller, President & CEO, The Farmers Bank
When the ABP team returns, the prospect is prepared to switch. Not one loan. Not one account. Everything — deposits, operating accounts, loans, treasury management, personal relationships, referrals.
Many banks with ABPs close at least 85% of these second meetings. And "closed" means the entire relationship, at premium pricing.
Low-cost and non-interest-bearing deposits shouldn't arrive by accident. ABP gives bankers a systematic way to identify businesses holding significant non-interest-bearing balances — and make a powerful enough business case that they confidently move those accounts.
This isn't a deposit special. It isn't rate-chasing. It's the systematic acquisition of valuable, stable, full banking relationships.
"I love my current bank" is where ordinary bankers retreat. For an ABP, it's where the real opportunity begins.
These aren't dissatisfied prospects shopping for a better deal. They didn't come looking for your bank. Your bankers identify them, approach them, build a powerful business case, and give them a compelling financial reason to leave a bank they may have loved for years.
In the first ABP class, the lead instructor tells participants how intimidated she felt becoming a commercial banker at 21 — sitting across from millionaires, thinking: "Surely they're going to discover that I don't know anything."
Then she asks the class: "How many of you feel intimidated by affluent people?" Even CEOs raise their hands.
At the end of the program, the question changes: "How many of you now have the confidence to go out and make a meaningful financial impact on successful, affluent people?" Every hand goes up.
That's earned confidence — the kind that comes from knowing you have the business acumen, architecture, and capability to become indispensable to the affluent.
One participant who had never been a lender before grew a portfolio from zero to $47 million in one year, without a single referral from an existing customer. Every relationship came from the process.
From Banker to Accredited Banking Professional™
ABP pinpoints the prospects with the greatest potential to transform your bank's profitability — including businesses with substantial non-interest-bearing deposits.
Your bankers use our proprietary system to build credibility, curiosity, and desire before the first conversation occurs. By the time they call, the prospect is already paying attention.
The opening of the first meeting immediately establishes relevance, credibility, and financial value. The prospect recognizes this isn't another bank sales call — and gives your banker complete attention.
Your banker guides the prospect in identifying and quantifying the money your bank can help the business save, make, or keep from losing through unique selling propositions available only from your bank. The prospect arrives at the financial conclusion. And people rarely argue with their own logic.
By the second meeting, the prospect is prepared to move the entire relationship. The ABP returns equipped to convert the value identified in the first meeting into a Closed-Won 100 at premium pricing.
An Accredited Banking Professional doesn't merely sell banking products. An ABP creates so much measurable financial value that highly desirable prospects willingly leave banks they once loved — and move everything.
$2 Million to $3 Million — Every Week, Like Clockwork
"It isn't a miracle that my team just brought in a $14 million checking account. The real miracle is that there isn't a week that goes by that they don't bring in a $2 million to $3 million checking account."
Charlie Holland, CEO
Farmers State Bank of Alto Pass
"It Saved My Life."
"The Accredited Banking Professional Program didn't change my life; it saved my life. I finally found purpose in my work."
Chrissy Frizell
Farmers State Bank
Every Annual Goal — Achieved in Three Months
"We did our strategic planning in September and set our goals for the following year. By December of that same year, we had already achieved every one of those goals. It was all because of the Accredited Banking Professional Program."
Matt Bennett, Chief Lending Officer
First National Bank of Syracuse
100%
Close Rate — 18 Consecutive Months
Dream First Bank used the system to close 100% of the Top 100 prospects it called on during an 18-month period.
The CEO attributes $47 million in new revenue to this program alone.
"It Saved My Life."
"The Accredited Banking Professional Program didn't change my life; it saved my life. I finally found purpose in my work."
Chrissy Frizell
Farmers State Bank
Common Questions
Imagine a team that knows how to:
That's the transformation behind the 10-month Accredited Banking Professional™ Certification.
We measure the success of a bank by one number: Closed-Won 100s.
How many carefully selected Top 100 prospects became complete, profitable relationships? Not calls. Not appointments. Not proposals. Not single-product wins purchased
with bargain-basement pricing.
Closed-Won 100s.
That discipline is one of the forces keeping so many of the banks we work with in the top 5% of peer performance.
You don't need more bankers making random calls and hoping their charm carries the day. You need super bankers equipped with the business acumen, confidence, and proprietary architecture to identify the right relationships, make the first meeting unforgettable, close the second, and capture everything at premium pricing.
Seats in the next cohort are limited. Request your program information below.
Request Your Program InformationRequest Your Program Information
One step, short — this is a top-of-funnel request, not a deep application. Depth comes later, in conversation.
