Welcome to The Top 5 Percenter™ Blog
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.
How is Your Bank Responding [Video]
What a week... How you respond right now to COVID-19, to near-zero interest rates, and to the requests you’re getting from customers to cut or match rates will predict how your bank will fare in this recession. How is Your Bank Responding There’s no reason community banks should have to go out of business because of this recession, but a lot of them will, because they’re not focused on the right...
Breakthroughs and Missed Opportunities in Your Product Lines
I believe every business has a breakthrough opportunity, a missed profit opportunity, in fact, in several of their product lines. In this blog, I'm going to share with you how any one of your product lines could be the source of thousands of dollars of additional profits within a few short weeks. You'll need to change your strategic planning process radically to make it happen. If...
The Antidote to Commodity Hell
If you're feeling trapped in rate competition, you're in "Commodity Hell"... and it's not a fun place. When your customers and prospects view you as no different than the bank down the street, you create a situation where retaining customers and attracting new ones is beyond difficult. The first reaction is to blame the customers. You've heard it at banking conventions before. Someone...
Do You Have a Solid and Proven Strategy to Get More Profitable Customers
I believe most banks are sitting on a gold mine of untapped potential for organic growth and increased profits. In this blog, you'll discover how you can get far more and more predictable profit and growth impact from your strategic planning process. After reviewing over 500 strategic plans, I find that many banks lack effective strategies, lack intentional congruence, and essentially...
How High-Performing Banks Use Emotional Intelligence Audits to Increase Sales
Most banks have three solutions they implement in the hope of having a breakthrough to increasing revenue that generates high profits: They hire more lenders. They ask each lender to make more calls. They hope one of those two plans work. However, they hardly ever do. Research shows that just a few lenders, usually about 6% that have a business development profile, carry the rest....
Confidence: How to Address the Core of Accountability Issues
In this video, I’m going to share with you how to get more accountability from your team members to the things that move the profit needle.
How to Attack the Root Cause of Net Interest Margin Compression
The constant “need” to match rates to win a deal is a symptom, not the cause of the net interest margin crisis in banking today. The cause is much more profound. It’s inside each of your lenders, and it may be inside of you. Frankly, it’s not your fault (or theirs). It’s unconscious and has been a limiting belief in the banking industry for at least 100 years (probably longer). And don’t...
Are Desirable Prospects Hard to Get?
I believe that the most desirable customers, based on traditional methods, can be the hardest to convince to change banking relationships. Watch this video to discover a powerful alternative.
How to Create a Referral Machine
I believe that an organization's profits matches the profits of their clientele. Watch this video now to discover how to find lower risk, lower hassle clients who are willing to pay premium pricing.
The Big Lie about Low Rates
Let’s get one thing straight. Low price IS a strategy. And consciously or unconsciously, every time you match rates to win business, you’re saying, “Our strategy is to be the lowest price bank in our market.” If you’re going to go the low-price route, at least make a conscious decision to pursue that strategy rather than have it be the result of dozens or hundreds of little unconscious decisions...
How to Get A+ Quality Loans to Come to You
I believe people operate out of their "world view" and fairly committed to their "belief systems." In this video, I share with you important tips to get your team to believe that getting more A+ credits can be done. Enjoy the video.
Differentiation: How to Drive A+ Quality Credits to Your Door
I believe that quality people love quality attention. Discover how to transform your safety and profitability for your bank. Watch this video now.