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Dive in for concise, powerful insights on elevating community banking. Discover strategies and success stories for superior performance, from boosting financial margins to cultivating a dynamic culture. These posts literally contain the secrets of the Top 5 Percenters™. Sign up to the newsletter so that you don’t miss a single post.
Mastering Team Selling at Your Bank
When I started as a lender, I got a briefcase, got in my car, and went up and down the street calling on folks hoping that they would bring their commercial and agricultural relationships to me. Well, sometimes they did, and sometimes they didn’t. I thought I was doing the best thing possible because I watched what everybody else was doing. I did the same thing and got the same...
Does Your Bank Have The Right Fundamental Sales Skills?
I wonder what the sales fundamentals are of banks that command premium pricing and achieve their loan growth goals. Are they different from other banks? You see, what we put into a system creates the outputs we pull out of that system. And sadly, many banks aren’t achieving their loan growth goals with the loan caliber, quality, and premium pricing they need because they don't have the right...
The Wrong—And Right—Way To Go About Loan Growth
What if you're going about loan growth in all the wrong ways? Now, you're probably not doing it all wrong. But there might be some ways that you could be doing it a whole lot better. That’s because all loan growth is not the same. The quality of the deals that you're bringing in and the desirability of those deals—because of their creditworthiness and their willingness to pay premium...
Stop Rate Matching, Increase Your Net Interest Margin
I bet your strategic plan does not have anything in it that says, “We want to match rates. We want to shrink our net interest margin. Oh, what can we do to match the rates of our desperate competitors?” Of course, those words aren’t in your strategic plan. And yet have you noticed that the way your plan is being executed demonstrates a reliably predictable pattern? One which basically means your...
The Secret to Increasing Your Net Interest Margin
Do you ever think you're worth more? Yeah, you probably do. We all do. So doesn’t it feel like a violation whenever somebody says, “Hey, we can do business with you, but you're going to have to match the rate.” That never feels okay. As soon as we match the rate, our net interest margin squashes. We don't want that to happen. Why would we when we don't even have the profit built-in? Instead,...
Debunking the Five Myths of Loan Growth
“If you want to reach people no one else is reaching, we've got to do things no one else is doing.” Andy Stanley said that, and it starts my chapter on debunking the five biggest myths of loan growth in my Breakthrough Banking Blueprint book. Those five biggest myths, sadly, are crushing net interest margin and loan growth for too many banks. Myth Number One: You can match the rate to get the...
Dear Banker: A Message from COVID to You
Dear Banker: A Message from COVID to You I go by many names: Co-Ron A. Virus, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, ‘Vid, “The Big One.” Some of my names are downright hurtful. The 2020 Plague. The Dirty ‘Rona. Those are actually some of the milder ones. And yes, for some, I was devastating in every way. I don’t feel bad about that because I have no feelings, remember? I’m microscopic. But I did help...
How to Pull Away Your Bank Competitors’ Very Best Customers
How do you—with great certainty—pull away your bank competitors’ very best customers? Now there's a question that should stimulate some really good thinking. Because let's face it, you can go buy a branch someplace else, but that's expensive. Or, you can set up a new branch someplace else. But that’s very expensive too, and often isn't profitable for a very long time. You can do all kinds of...
Bank Loan Growth Strategies for Steady, Sustainable Growth in 2022
Loan growth in your bank has never been more important. And it's probably never been harder. There have probably never been more desperate competitors who are willing to undercut your best customers. Competitors who will take that business away at a profit margin that you can't even understand—at a margin that you're sure it is a ticket out of the business. But if they become lunatics...
Community Banking Trends for 2022
There are many new trends that are hitting us in banking. Let's face it, it's not like it used to be. So, let's talk about some of the many things that are happening. And let’s also talk about how to make sure that you're successfully managing some of these banking trends. Banking Trend Number One Culture remains much more challenging than it's been before. Yes, we've just seen the great...
How Can Your Bank Create Brand Insistence?
Way too many banks have spent a lot of money on brand awareness. And yet, can you even point to one customer who said I came to this bank because I just love their brand? In fact, most money spent on branding has a negative return on investment. Sadly, we've all been sold a bill of goods that is not producing. However, there's something to be said for branding. And that is in the conversation of...
Higher Net Interest Margin With Less Risk—Fact or Fiction?
Net interest margin. Three of my favorite words. Why? Because it is such an important component of what takes a bank to the top of its peers. And if you’re tired of being average and competing on rate, I’m going to tell you that there is a way out of that mess. And, in fact, I would suggest that the banks that don't figure out how to avoid matching rates soon are probably not going to maintain...