Welcome to the Top 5 Percenter™ Blog

What if you can use extreme differentiation to get 150 basis points or more on the loan side and improve your deposit pricing at the same time?

 

If you’re the kind of leader who feels strongly that you can’t follow the herd and believes that net interest margin compression is inevitable, you’re going to love this.

Or if you have some lenders who get premium pricing but are frustrated that others still fall back to rate matching, you’ll want to watch this.

Or maybe you’ve given up on getting premium pricing because you believed the conventional wisdom that banking is a commodity that you’ve heard at the industry conferences and if so, this is for you.

Here’s why. When you get it, you’ll have a blueprint for catapulting yourself past the three biggest problems in banking right now:

Problem 1: Customers who love you and leave you for better rates.
Problem 2: Customers believe your commodity and you might not be giving them a reason to think differently.
Problem 3: Your people mean well and offer great service, but they don’t know how to sidestep the whole rate conversation trap.

Every bank is facing these three. Today you will learn about four levels of USPs and why you need dozens of them.  But to get extreme premium pricing, you need to create level four USPs.

Level one USPs offer basic differentiation. If you’ve ever believed that great customer service was your key differentiator, then you’re working with a level one USP.
Level two USPs are our gadgets and products. Your super-duper free checking, your nifty online banking site, and your instant approval mortgage are all level two USPs. You need them, but they’re too easy to copy.
Level three USPs are where it gets juicy. They’re the special education and certifications that matter to discerning customers and put you in a league of elite bankers.
Level four USPs are the pinnacle. They are the proprietary processes that clients tell you are worth at least 10 times more than the additional amount that you charge. These take you way out of the commodity world.

Flex your level for USPs with a sales process designed to monetize them, and you’ll pull away your competitor’s best customers at 150 basis points or more.

Some of our banks regularly average at least 200 basis points more than what their competitors get. So don’t tell me it can’t be done. Also, you’ll have the peace of mind that you are profitable and safe during good times and bad.

What if you could use your USPs in your sales process to make sure you never hear those ugly words, “can you match the rate?” So you and your people can feel the competence of knowing that you are an elite, prestigious organization worth more.

Get your USPs right and stop worrying about what the economy or desperate competitors do to your profits. That’s for those other banks.

To your continued success,

Roxanne Emmerich

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

More From The Blog

Why Culture Cannot Be Delegated

Sometimes, two different ideas seem to challenge each other. You've probably heard me say that everyone has a role in managing the culture of the organization. You've...

Everyone Is in Sales

I don't care what your position is; you have a sales position.   Why? Let's say you're out with other soccer moms, and somebody mentions they're planning on building a...

Learned Helplessness

When I was working on my graduate studies in organizational development, I learned about the concept of learned helplessness.   What I've discovered is that it’s a...

Everyone is In Marketing [VIDEO]

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...

Finding Top 100 Customers [VIDEO]

We know that for banks that have 2 billion in assets that anywhere between 50 to 140% of their profits come from their top 100 most profitable customers.   But the real...