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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.
7 Startling Signs You’re Losing the NIM Battle
Is net interest margin compression a given? It is for most banks…but it’s not for all banks. In fact, many banks are bringing up their net interest margin by 40, 50, 60, 100 basis points in a half a year to a year. And if they can do it, perhaps you can. So what are the seven telltale signs that you will have continued NIM compression? Number one: You have people who believe that they have to...
The Fast-Track to Consistent Profitable Growth
You’ve got a problem… Your sales staff was lulled to sleep during the good times and those that are left, now years later, well, they don’t have the skills or the confidence to go snap up quality accounts and get them at a rate you can be proud of. They sit in the office trapped, as if in a box of their own making, believing that it’s not possible to rapidly grow their portfolio with quality...
For Community Bankers Who Want More Sales
So, congratulations! You now have mobile banking. That’s good news…and it’s also horrible news. You probably haven’t thought about the fact that now that we have half of the lobby traffic already removed from our banks, we’re about to drive away the rest of it. So, something is going to have to change…and what that is, is that your people will need to be getting out and having conversations. And...
Are You Really Selling?
I've got a question for you: are your people really selling? You see in a snow storm, all the plows are busy. The snow plowing companies answer their phones, they take jobs that competitors can't do because they're too busy, and everybody thinks they are selling, but they're not really selling—there happens to be a snow storm. Right now there's a bit of a snow storm in banking. Times are...
How to Avoid the Price-Matching Slippery Slope
Here's the thing about price: matching price is an addiction. When you're discounting, it has a debilitating future impact on so many different things. It sabotages your ability to recruit, hire, and train the very best. It deteriorates your best customer service efforts, because you can't invest in the customer service that you have. It doesn't allow for you to have cutting-edge products...
Cranky Regulators: Why They’re Focused on the Core Deposit Sacred Six
It's happening again. The regulators are cranky, yet again, and this time for some good reasons. They're a little heavy-handed right now on banks that are not mastering the deposit strategy and the execution of that strategy. They're looking at six key issues—first, relationship depth. Do you have cross-sales on those accounts? Especially your large deposit accounts—make sure that you're...
5 Steps to More Core Deposits
Regulators and bankers have one common concern right now—get and keep deposits as interest rates go up. Sounds easy, but it hasn't been all that easy just to get deposits when rates have been low, and so getting better at this immediately is important. I'm going to cover five must-do-now strategies that you need to have happen pronto to make sure that you get and keep those deposits to weather...
Can Your Team Survive Strategic Planning?
If you haven’t done your strategic plan yet, be thinking about—not only the things I covered recently about strategic planning—but also the fact that one of the most important things you can do is bond your team. Here’s the thing: if you’ve got great strategies, but people are not aligned behind them, the likelihood of getting them done is slim to none. Now, what happens in most strategic...
How to Turn Your Personal Bankers Into Cross-Selling Stars
What if you had personal bankers who could each bring in million-dollar-business checking accounts—2 to 4 of those each month—with great regularity? And what if you could have other personal banker specialists who focus only on your top 100 most-profitable customers, and you could get an average of 13 cross-sales on those accounts? And what if you had personal bankers who could proactively call...
A Seldom Used Secret Weapon in Community Bank Sales
Selling has changed…and if it feels like selling, you’re doing it wrong. The whole premise of sales in community banking is on a fundamentally weak base right now. What we don’t understand is that what we need to do is delve deeply into customers’ needs—but only after we get permission to not be talking about the rates. Our first question needs to be the Break Preoccupation with Rate Question....
3 Hidden Dangers of Cross-Sales
For decades now, I’ve seen the statistics run along the same alarming, flat line…cross-sales of new accounts in banking AVERAGE…AVERAGE, just 2.2 per account! Let me spare you the complex math… That means MANY banks are below 2.2 cross-sales per account and some are above—but not far. Cross-sales may seem like a small issue, but the industry-wide cross-sale contagion poses a near and very...
Getting Strategies Into Your Strategic Plan
It’s strategic planning time…all over again. This year, you have the unique opportunity to change the way you’re doing things to change your results.The best way to do that?Make sure you have strategies in your strategic plan.Now hold on—you’re thinking you have them. I’m going to challenge you by telling you that in twenty-five years of looking at banks’ strategic plans, I have only seen a...