Why Premium Pricing Is a Leadership Decision—Not a Market Condition [VIDEO]

Every time I meet a new bank CEO, they say something very similar to what the three thousand-plus conversations I’ve had with bank CEOs sounded like. And what they say to me is this: “Roxanne, it’s different here.”

Here, we have to match rates. Here, we have competition for pricing. That’s just how it is here.

Now, I gotta tell you, I met two gentlemen years ago when they picked me up in their SUV. They were the CEO and the president of the bank, and we were about to do their kickoff.

The one said to me, “Roxanne, everybody complains that their deposit costs are high, but I can prove to you that we have the highest deposit cost in the nation.”

At which point, I stuck my fingers in my ears like a grown-up and I said, “I’m not listening. I’m not listening. I’m not listening.”

And I had a smile on my face. I was nice about it. They said, “Why are you doing that?”

And I said, “Because if your story becomes my story, I can’t help you.”

Markets do not dictate interest rates.

Let me say it again. The market doesn’t dictate the interest rates that you charge.

You dictate those through your differentiation and your ability to sell that differentiation.

If that were not the case, then every restaurant that has something other than the Golden Arches in front of it would be charging the same price as a McDonald’s hamburger.

It just isn’t that way, and yet in banking, we believe we’re the one great commodity that no one can break through.

Here’s the really sad part. Every time I hear a CFO or a chief lending officer say that to me, I should have always shorted the stock because I know that bank will lose its independence.

They’re right.

It is a commodity until you make it not a commodity.

So yes, in fact, they’re right. And there’s a whole other mountain of evidence, and you better get on that other mountain. You better get there fast because when you look at how we’ve moved from twenty thousand banks down to four thousand banks, we know where this is going.

The only banks that will be left will be the boutique banks that can command extreme premium pricing because they are worth it.

That’s the only game in town, and it’s a game you better master—and fast.