If you’ve been listening, you’ve heard me repeat from the mountain top over and over again that the key to winning the game is low-cost deposits.

But HOW? It seems like the biggest mystery in banking. Yet the banks that get it are solving their problem in just a few months.

A few strategies to get you started:

1. Don’t even THINK about not training your front line to handle every inquiry with a conversation that breaks the preoccupation with rate.
2. Get the rate board out of focus. The rate board teaches your clients to shop you. Who needs that?
3. Define your most profitable deposit accounts and create a powerful repeat “give” plan to be in touch with all those who are similar in thinking patterns. That’s the science of psychographics.
4. Stop matching rates by making sure all employees know EXACTLY how to turn the conversation at the beginning so they don’t have to match later on.
5. Celebrate your successes. Keep them in the focus, and your employees will quickly learn what gets celebrated.