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.
Ten No-Fail Strategies to Create Profit-Rich Growth-Part 2
Last week I discussed the first five strategies to help transform your bank to be stronger and more profitable than ever before. Now let’s dive into the next group of strategies that will impact the bottom line. 6. Free the vigilantes. Ray Kroc used to say that until every bathroom in every McDonald's was clean, they would not add to the menu. You must be equally dedicated to getting your people...
Ten No-Fail Strategies to Create Profit-Rich Growth For 2016-Part 1
Major consolidation will continue to be the norm in the banking industry over the next 18 months. In fact, next year is destined to be a major “shake out” year where weak banks will be acquired or closed—and banks that are in a position to capture the best customers in town will become stronger and more profitable.With careful strategic planning, YOUR bank can become one of these stronger...
What You Must Ask About Your Strategic Planning Process
Imagine a strategic planning process that allows for the right strategies proven to lower risk, improve profit, and build a sustainable system that creates predictable organic growth that actually was implemented and exceeded. You don’t have to imagine. That system exists, and it works. It’s used by the highest performing banks in the country—the ones with ROAs over 2 and net interest margins...
7 Ways to Guarantee Your Strategic Plan Will Fail and How To Avoid Them (Part II)
Last week I discussed the hard truth behind most banks’ strategic plans: they lack…well, strategy. Let me quickly recap last week’s fails to avoid before diving into the next four. 1) The plan is a list of goals, and does not list the strategies on how to obtain those goals. 2) The plan is not focused on your next most-profitable customers. You target generic, you get generic. 3) The plan does...
7 Ways to Guarantee Your Strategic Plan Will Fail and How To Avoid Them (Part I)
Let’s be frank: Most banks get no real value from their strategic planning process—just a list of unimaginative goals with none of the revolutionary thought needed to transform results, and very little hope of even getting beyond the book on the shelf. If that sounds familiar, don’t be embarrassed. You’re certainly not alone. Having talked with thousands of bank executives over the last few...
Removing the Risk Roadblock
We’ve all been there. The car salesman slides the paperwork across the desk at you, pointing at the signature line. Just this one last step, he says, and there’ll be no way out.At least that’s how it can sound to the customer as she wipes her sweaty palms, wondering if she’s doing the right thing, wondering if she’s considered everything, wondering if she’s taking too big of a...RISK.Risk is...
Really Stupid Things Smart Bankers Do
Even though it was 20 years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday. One of the attendees at a bank CEO conference came up after my speech and began to lecture me. "There's one distinction you're missing, Roxanne. We bankers, we're like sheep. The first one marches up to the ledge and falls off, and the rest march in step screaming Baaahhh! as they fall one by one over the ledge. You have to...
Getting Your People to Do What Needs to Get Done
I’ve seen it happen a million times. Managers tell me, “But we told them what to do, showed them how to do it…and they’re still not doing it.” Financial institutions actually have more of a challenge with this. Because every workday involves quantifiable numbers, the assumption by managers is that everything can be controlled—including people. The typical management approach to increased sales...
You Are Cordially Invited: The Power of Truly Targeted Marketing
Fortune cookies and horoscopes are miracles of marketing. They predict something that happens to almost everyone every day (“You will meet someone new”) and somehow make you feel like it was written just for you. Well, sometimes. That worked a lot better when I was ten. Nowadays, I’m not likely to be impressed unless every Sagittarius on Earth is run over by a guy named Keith on the same Tuesday...
What IF it didn’t Need to Be So Hard
Chasing your tail is never a flattering or productive exercise. Most executives are exhausted by the constant need to “run” the business. Can you relate? Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited talks about something that can make your life easy — The Franchise Prototype. Think McDonald’s. Think Starbucks. Think UPS. Successful businesses create impenetrable systems –“the system runs the business,...
The #1 Top Motivator for Employees
According to a recent study by Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer, when 600 managers were asked to rank the impact on employee motivation and emotions of the five workplace factors that are commonly defined as significant influencers—incentives, recognition, interpersonal support, clear goals, and support for making progress—they identified “recognition for good work” as Numero Uno. And...
How to Beat Price Objections Without Being ‘Salesy’
Almost every financial service request begins with someone asking a price question. “What are your mortgage rates?” and “what are your car insurance rates” are the typical questions heard many times each hour at almost every financial institution in this country. Unfortunately, our research shows that well over 90 percent of those rate shoppers receive the rate with no additional attempt to help...