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.
Create a Top 100 Plan that Rocks
Create a “Top 100” plan for an extremely high level of giving and care for those prospects and clients who are most valuable. It’s your insurance policy to retain and grow business with top targets and to create referrals from those people. Your “Top 100” contact plan should: Provide value. Be a top-of-mind GIVE plan. Expand their knowledge of you—case studies, similar problems with solutions,...
Ax Attitude Problems
A new attitude invariably creates a new result. That is why it is essential to identify those employees within your organization that have an attitude problem and correct it quickly. Not only do they impact their own performance, but they suck the energy from everyone around them, too. Don’t doubt the power of one negative person’s toll on your entire team. In order to prevent this grapevine...
A Simple Rule that Assures You Win the Deal 94% of the Time
Research shows that the salesperson who presents last is guaranteed the sale 94 percent of the time. That said, the mark of a good salesperson is not ‘wheeling and dealing’ but rather mastering how to secure this profitable position. All too often, we hear heartbreaking stories from people who took their best shot, had an agreement to do business, did all the paperwork to put together the...
Every “NO” Brings You One Step Closer
Keep your sales funnel clean. Instead of accepting a weak “no” or “maybe later” and keeping that person on your prospect list, try using the prospect’s “NO” to get one step closer to “YES.” Take a lesson from kids who have set their sights on a treat. It’s pretty hard to negotiate with an eight-year-old’s sweet tooth when you’re approaching a Dairy Queen. “Dad, can I have a cone?” “No, not until...
Commonly Neglected Killer Marketing Tools
Of the hundreds of potential marketing tools available to help us get more customers and more deeply penetrate each relationship, the ones that are most commonly neglected which could create the biggest returns include: Mailing helpful information to current clients. Scheduled follow-up call to thank customer for opening a new account and find missed opportunities to help them with other needs....
Don’t Let Your Customers Have “Frightening” Customer Service Experiences
Are your employees scaring your customers away because of their “ghoulish” service? Do your team members know how to convert someone asking for a rate into a client delighted to pay premium pricing and immediately bringing all their accounts? Most banks know they should mystery shop, and almost all the good ones currently do. But when it comes to getting the benefits out of that shopping—catchy...
5 Ways to Command Higher Pricing without Losing the Deal
Here Are Five Ways to Improve Your Bottom Line and Customer Satisfaction 1) Bundle your products so there are no apple to apple comparisons: “Our 7-year mortgage program happens to come with free checking, free bill pay, free Internet banking, a free debit card AND a line of credit that will cover overdrafts at a reduced rate of $____ if you sign up for this package prior to closing.” 2)...
Ten Commandments for Complaint Recovery
Follow these ten steps to alleviate customer complaint calls and save your company name: COMMANDMENT #1: Express appreciation for the feedback. "Thank you for telling us about this. We appreciate customers who let us know when things aren't right." COMMANDMENT #2: Show empathy. Empathy can be a powerful tool to disarm an angry customer. With compassion in your voice, say, "It must have been very...
10 Steps to Implement a New Policy or Procedure
If you want to excel, you must excel at the implementation of every policy and procedure you roll out. Here is a 10-step template to make ensure each implementation rocks. Help every person “feel the pain.” Make sure people experience the pain of not fixing the problem, so they are engaged in fixing it. Hold a “brainstorm solutions” meeting Engage your people in coming up with solutions. Develop...
Strategic Planning Bottlenecks: Part Two
Last week I revealed the first two bottlenecks that are roadblocks to creating a kick-butt strategic plan. Discover the remaining three bottlenecks described in today's blog post. BOTTLENECK 3: No strategies in the strategic plan It seems ironic that a strategic plan would not have any strategies in it, but if you read a few dozen strategic plans, you’ll quickly find that a defined strategy is...
Strategic Planning Bottlenecks: Part One
It’s been around for decades. The old strategic planning model. You head to the retreat center. Wear khakis. Revise the mission statement until it reads “To be a leading provider of financial services in a four-county area with outstanding customer service, high-quality products, and above rate of return to our stakeholders.” THEN, after that useless exercise, you do the SWOT analysis and create...
The Top 24 Words That Sell
In order, these are the most compelling words that cause people to buy. Make sure your sales letters and presentations are filled with them. PRINT THIS AND KEEP IT HANDY TO REVIEW EVERY LETTER YOU SEND. You How New How to Amazing Announcing Breakthrough Just Discover Free New At Last Sale Protect Now Astonishing Introducing Secrets of Which Only Yes Here Why...