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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.
POWER Pictures
A picture is worth a thousand words. Cliché? Yes. Lie? No. The brain thinks in pictures, not words. When you are proposing your solutions, your prospect is much more likely to arrive at the decision you want if you paint a picture of what their world would be like with your solution in place. Grab hold of their attention and stimulate their imagination. Use analogies, metaphors, stories and...
A Windshield to Go with That Gas Pedal–Marketing with a Plan
Picture yourself in the driver’s seat of your dream car, ready to go—but the windows are all painted black, and there are no gauges. You turn the key, and the engine roars. You push the pedal to the floor, and away you go! You'll end up somewhere, but it won't be pretty. Many banks operate their marketing efforts in much the same way. They send out a few postcard campaigns and direct mailings,...
Acres of Diamonds – The Solution to the Yield Curve
I finally read it. I had heard about it from at least twenty people over the years who talked of it being a powerful book that shaped their world: Acres of Diamonds. It's a century old, and yet its truths are timeless. This pastor, lawyer, speaker, politician, and university president—who collected $11 million from his speech by the same title and donated it to students—spoke of the riches that...
Let the Bears Sleep While You Get All the Honey
The media seem to be doing their level best to keep folks jittery. So it's not surprising that consumers are sitting hard on their wallets, convinced that the monsters of recession and depression will suck the filling out of them if they so much as crack them open. And what are banks doing? Most are seeing the fearful hype as a huge problem, setting their alarm clocks for spring, and hunkering...
Seven Secrets to Catching the Hungriest Fish
A teacher read a story to her second grade class about a village of fishermen. “Take out a sheet of paper,” she said, “and I’d like you each to draw a picture of the lake and the fishermen from the story.” The class began drawing big blue lakes with boats scattered across the water. As the teacher walked around, she noticed the work of one girl. Instead of scattering the boats across the water,...
Just Say No to “Yes” Men
The message is clear: if disaster is what you’re after, surround yourself with “yes” men. They’ll be good company in the lifeboat.
Motivating Employees During Tough Times
In today's turbulent economic market, even the strongest and most powerful corporate icons are challenged to find ways to improve their efficiencies. As they require more work from fewer numbers of people, their top priority is to have effective leaders and motivators who can propel their group to greatness. Unfortunately, many young managers and leaders have never seen a tight economy, or at a...
Planning Well in Shifting Sand
Calling current conditions for business "unpredictable" is like saying Voldemort has bad manners. Planning even a single year in advance seems like a leap of faith. But there are a few simple rules that can keep your strategic planning meaningful despite all the wild variables. Gather data. When the situation is in constant flux, you double your trouble by flying blind. Track data and trends in...
Do-Re-Mi: The 7 Notes of the Sales Question Scale
Not all questions are the same. Just as the different notes of that musical scale carry us step by step through the octave, the questions in an effective sales process should carry the process forward, step by step, from the opening question to the closing handshake.
Triage for Bankers: Find the Pain and Fix It
Anybody who walks into your bank has got a real problem. People without problems don’t wake up in the morning and say, "Today is a good day to spend talking to a banker," any more than they would decide to talk to a doctor for kicks. People without problems have better things to do with their time. The very fact that potential clients are either taking your call or calling you says they have...
A Penny Saved is STILL a Penny Earned
One of the best side effects of the recession is the long, hard look consumers are taking at their financial habits. Nine credit cards and three mortgages might not have been such a boffo plan after all. We also see the rebirth of a virtue of the past—saving. Even if they aren't in a position to begin saving this minute, consumers busily promise themselves that the moment they have a spare...
4 Rules for Creating Sales-Clinching Questions
Every parent knows the futility of asking, “How was school today?” Whether the place burned to the ground or everyone in the school split the Powerball jackpot, the answer will be the same— “Fine.” It’s a vague and unproductive question, and it gets the answer it deserves. But once in a while, a parent catches on and asks a question that deserves an answer; “What was one silly thing that...