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.
If an Opportunity Falls in Your Lap, Are You Ready?
The coming bank consolidation isn’t a surprise. It’s been predicted for years. In fact, the next 18 months are destined to be a major “shake out” period when 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. If an opportunity like this landed unexpectedly in your lap, would you be ready?...
Get Paid the Premium Pricing You’re Worth with Critical Drivers that WORK
If you ask commercial lenders how they’re doing, most would say they’re performing strongly. But performance for them too often means sitting in the bank, waiting for B and C credits to walk in, interviewing them, getting their data, sending it to the credit committee—then trying to sell the committee on how to make that loan work, even though it has risks.
Acquisitions That WORK: The Bomb-Proof Management System That’s Ready to Roll
A lot of bad things happen around acquisitions. If you’re being acquired, it’s rarely pretty. And if you’re the one acquiring, the Wharton School of Business says your chance of failure is greater than 83 percent. And even if you don’t go down in flames in the opening round, the real heartaches continue for two years after the acquisition as two dark forces are inevitably unleashed:
Are your job descriptions killing your bank’s performance?
Your job descriptions could be killing your bank's performance. We both know you have two types of employees: superstars — and the well-meaning, but average performing players. The superstars are going to excel no matter what. But your average players can do better. Too bad most are playing to the music you gave them...the job description. For example: Most lenders think their job description...
4 New Strategies Shaping the Future for Top-Performing Banks
Here are four new strategies that I’ve found that are shaping the future of top-performing banks. These strategies are profoundly changing the game of banking, and you should be paying attention to them. #1. Master the right “franchise system.” What if everyone had a clear road map and education to do his or her job as a top 1 percenter does it? What if the strategy tied into the...
4 Secret Strategies of The Most Successful Banks in America
#1. Culture trumps strategy. Hundreds of studies now show that culture is the leading predictor of future growth and profitability. The Gallup Organization found the increase in earnings per share for companies in the top quartile that have high employee engagement (a measure of culture) to be 2.6 times. Amazing! Unfortunately, there is a false belief in banking that culture means sales...
The Sure-Fire Way to Stop Disorienting Your Best Salespeople—and Help Them Massively Succeed.
Most banks are screaming for loan growth. But they’re not going to get it.
They think the only way to achieve that growth is to do traditional sales training.
Never, in the history of time has that ever worked. No really…never.
The Seven-Step Formula for Creating a Franchisable System
Can you give them what they need to succeed? Not unless you’ve created a franchisable system to help them duplicate your success.
Here are the seven crucial elements of building a franchisable system in your own bank:
Mergers and Acquisitions: If an Opportunity Falls in Your Lap, Are You Ready?
The coming bank consolidation isn’t a surprise. It’s been predicted for years. In fact, the next 18 months are destined to be a major “shake out” period when 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.
Bank Culture: The #1 Predictor of Future Growth and Profitability
Culture asks, “Will your people leap over tall buildings in a single bound to make sure your client is successful in their business or personal financial goals?” “Will you go beyond bank “product” to create Unique Selling Propositions that rock their world and cause hundreds of thousands of dollars of impact for them? And will your people have fun doing it so that your system is sustainable?
The 5 Biggest Marketing Traps Almost Every Bank Falls Into—and How to Avoid Being One of Them
Ready to stop wasting your marketing dollars and grow your profits and safety with a predictable model of organic growth of top and bottom lines?
Confidence Trumps Sales Training EVERY Time
Thousands of bank executives are waking up to 2013 saying, “SALES training! Of course! It’s SALES training we need.”
Yeah, well sometimes the first thing that pops into our heads isn’t a keeper. Sales training is fine, but it’s NOT what you need to solve your problem and create a sustainable solution.