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.
Customers and Prospects Demand Excellence in Stressful Times [VIDEO]
Now is the time that customers and prospects demand that you are excellent at what you do. I have a friend, and a vendor to my business, who told me that because a big chunk of his income comes as a result of community banking, he thought he should switch over his account and work with a community bank. So, for the first time in his life, he went to a community bank and opened an account....
How to Manage for Profit in Challenging Times [VIDEO]
Challenging times require great transparency of information going to the executive team and also going to the board. For instance, if I'm a bank CEO, I want to know if the account managers who are assigned to my current top 100 and top 1000 customers are in contact with each one of them, or if they've just left a voicemail, or if they've actually had communication. I want to know if anybody's on...
What You Should Be Communicating to Customers Right Now [VIDEO]
It's never been more important to make sure that you're talking to your customers in ways that matter. I bring this up because I just got done doing a live recording with some of the smartest marketers in banking across the United States, and I saw some tragic errors on their websites and some tragic errors in their press releases. Video: What You Should Be Communicating to Customers Right Now I...
Increasing Productivity and Accountability in the Midst of Chaos [VIDEO]
Challenging times require that people understand exactly how they tie to profit and they know how to do it on a daily, weekly, quarterly, monthly basis. When you are communicating with your team members, it's never been more important to keep them out of busy work and keep them into the right productive work. And let me assure you, many times they are confused. Video: Increasing Productivity and...
How to Avoid Layoffs: Tie Every Person to Profit [VIDEO]
During difficult times, everyone must know how they tie to profit, and become a master of the actions that allow for them to move their correct critical drivers—the leading indicators that move the lagging indicators. You see, during difficult times like this, one of the big mistakes that a lot of executives do is they start doing some massive layoffs. When in fact, if everyone ties to profit,...
Now More Than Ever You Must Focus on Revenue [VIDEO]
Challenging times require very focused revenue creating activities and fast. So the natural response for many executives during times like this will be to cut all the expenses, the very ones that in many cases would be what would take them ahead at the end of this and have them stand out Now More Than Ever You Must Focus on Revenue These are the times instead for you to get focused in on...
Pulling Ahead in Difficult Times [VIDEO]
These are difficult times, and they require difficult actions but very important actions. So let's talk about what the best organizations, that pull ahead during calamities and recessions, are doing differently. What are the organizations that always seem to make it, and pull ahead of their competition during difficult times doing right now. Pulling Ahead in Difficult Times The first thing that...
Intentional Congruence — The Key to Predictable Profitability
One of the hardest things to do is align everyone and everything with just a few things that matter to the profits of your bank. Yet this intentional congruence is one of the most important practices that you must follow if you want to grow and prosper. In this blog, I want to share with you a concept that has transformed the strategic planning results for hundreds of banks, increasing...
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...