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.
Five Steps for More Profitable and Higher Quality Loans
Who hasn’t seen a salesperson, fresh from a seminar on cross-selling, suddenly spread a dozen different account options like a Japanese fan in front of the poor customer, whose expression falls into a blank and frightened stare?
Confusion to Conviction – Creating the Mind that Buys
Who hasn’t seen a salesperson, fresh from a seminar on cross-selling, suddenly spread a dozen different account options like a Japanese fan in front of the poor customer, whose expression falls into a blank and frightened stare?
Reversing the Risk
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.
Creating the Ultimate Strategy
You’ve decided to create and implement a killer strategy. So where do you look for ideas?
There are hundreds of tried and true strategies out there. Some have taken companies from just marking time to the big time in no time. But which ones should you consider?
When Purple is the New White : The Art of the Zag
one company does something different and effective, then everyone imitates it. Then you’ve got yourself a field of purple cows. That’s when it’s time to go white. Or brown. Or zebra-striped. If they zig, you zag.
Secrets to Catching the Hungriest Fish
Here are three of the seven most effective secrets to finding and catching the hungriest fish—the customers who will add to your bottom line instead of nibbling from it:
Do you have a “sales prevention” department?
Are you playing the wrong game?
Win the Greatest Game Ever Played
Are you playing the wrong game?
The Art of Superb Execution
Are you as good as you think you are? Whether the economy gets better or not is out of your control. But YOU getting better—that’s entirely in your control, and it’s non-negotiable.
What Strategic Planning Is – and What It Ain’t
You’re doing the old “Mission Statement, SWOT, and Goals” thing. That’s fine. I’m SURE you don’t think that’s the same thing as strategic planning.
Simple Secret for Growing Net Interest Margin
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.
Just say NO to Strategic Planning Land Mines
Is your strategic plan the right plan—and one that can and will get completed?
If you’re like most bankers, you probably pulled your strategic plan together eight or nine months ago. But is everyone in the bank on a weekly process to make sure they all hit the outcomes?
You are hearing everywhere that those who run their banks like they ran them five years ago won’t make it in the not-so-distant future. Heck, based on the news reports over the past year, they may no longer be in business.