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 to Guarantee Your Strategic Plan Will Fail, and What to do About It (Part 1)
I hear it time and time again The overwhelming majority of bankers I talk to when I speak at banking conferences feel that their banks don’t get any real value out of their strategic planning process and the sad reality is—they’re right. Because of this, strategic planning is often treated as a yearly burden that has to be endured every year. Most bankers play along with absolutely no hope of...
The Three Can’t–Miss Pieces of a Functional Strategic Plan
Yes…it’s true. It’s time once again to create a strategic plan for next year. It’s time to create that ‘master plan’ that will make next year your BEST YEAR EVER. If you just sighed or rolled your eyes, then you’re one of the many community bankers that have suffered through strategic planning year after year only to see the plan forgotten, ignored, or poorly implemented. Many banks with...
How to win at YOUR game
Are you playing the wrong game?
Do you believe this?
For the last 18 months I've been “eavesdropping” on conversations at community banking conferences and what I've heard is shocking… Bankers are being lied to… And some are believing these “false truths”… The history books are filled with common—accepted—beliefs…truths… That aren't true… ‘The world is flat…” “The Earth is the center of the universe…” “Bigfoot is real…” “Premium rates only come on...
Is this addiction killing your bank’s profit?
It creeps up on you…usually in a moment of desperation. A prospect comes in and says “So and so bank down the street offered rate X. If you can get me a loan at a rate that is half a percent lower, then you have my business.” Now you feel trapped. You want to close this deal, but you know if you lower your rate, the deal won’t be profitable…but you know if you don’t lower your rate, the...
The Question That Stops Prospects in Their Tracks
Are you playing the wrong game?
Stop Scaring Away New Prospects with Old Tactics
You’ve heard it before – the bankers who are STILL calling on clients asking hideously inept questions such as, “What kind of things are you looking for in a bank?” or “Tell me about your business,” or “What kind of things are keeping you up at night?” UGH.
Why Average Sales People Stay Average and How to Get More Out of Them
What does your job description say for your lenders…? Let me guess; an HR wordsmithed version of “get loans” ... The problem is, you don't want loans, you want to profit. Your superstars get this, and that's why they excel. But your good, but not yet great, salespeople may not connect all the dots. And a big part of the disconnect is in your job descriptions. The truth is job descriptions are a...
Why The “Hunter-Farmer” Approach Is Flawed And What You Should Do Instead
The “hunter and farmer” model of sales is so broken in most banks we see; it’s not even funny anymore… There’s a long list of so-called-sales-trainers that have tried to get banks to train their way out of the problem, but all of that is like a Band-Aid® on cancer… So today, let’s strike the root of the problem in sales: Wrong people in the wrong seats. See, when we hire salespeople, we’re...
5 Banking Myths That Are Eating Your Profits
Belief is a funny thing. I’ve worked with over 300 banks and the #1 bank killer is between the ears of the leaders and the troops… As Henry Ford famously said: “If you think you can, or you think you can’t…you’re right!” The bad news is that believing in myths, just because it’s accepted truth will hurt. And the pain is accelerating, thanks to our friends at the big banks and out in Silicon...
Buzzing Hive of Opportunity
If I owned a tattoo shop for bankers, I’d ink the same thing over and over onto client after client: Life gives to the givers and takes from the takers.
5 Steps to Bullet-Proof Accountability
Accountability is a funny thing. Everybody wants it from their team, but accountability for what? Accountability for attendance? For work completed? For “doing what you say you’ll do?” Sure, but those aren’t game-changers… What you really want is accountability for RESULTS. Without RESULTS, you have nothing more than a social club with the added benefit of a bi-weekly gift of money. But how do...