Whenever I do the Breakthrough Banking Blueprint Conference, I ask the question “Who here is in marketing”, and one or two hands go up.

I ask again, “Who here is in marketing” and a few more hands will go up.  And then finally, everybody catches on and all hands go up. And they understand everybody in banking is in marketing. Why? Because marketing isn’t about pretty things, billboards, and logos. Marketing is about knowing who your next best customer is, and unearthing the relationship that they have with their current bank and pulling them over to your bank.  Everyone must understand the mechanics of that or they will mess it up along the way.

Imagine for a second that you get a lead. It’s a happy day, especially if it’s a top 100 lead and they give you a hand raise.  But, you have somebody who answers the phone, and they don’t get a 10 on their mystery shops, therefore, they lose the deal right there, and you didn’t even know that you had identified the right person and that they’re now interested in working with you. They don’t understand the role to know who the top 100 is, bring them in, make sure the appointment happens, and have it be a wild experience from “Hello”.

Yeah, everybody’s in marketing.

If somebody is in the operations department and they see a big check come through, and they’re not your customer, and they’re looking at that thing, going $2 million, who’s got $2 million to have a check, they must be up to something.  If they process the check, they’re acting like a banker. If they’re acting like a marketer, they’re thinking “a $2 million check, they’re not even our customer.  I’m going to talk to the head of retail, because I think there’s something here.  I’m going to get those accredited banking professionals out there calling on them, making sure that we get them to be customers.
That’s what being a marketer is. It’s about knowing what to do. And it’s about the passion to do it.   

Those two combined makes everyone in banking, a marketer. Let’s face it, in order to be a top 5% performing bank, you better make sure that everyone in your organization doesn’t give lip service to the words, I am a marketer. 

To your continued success, 

Roxanne Emmerich 

Please watch the video above and share it with your exec team and board.