Make This the Year NIM Stands for Nothing Is IMpossible

Drawing of businessman standing on arrow graphic on top of a mountain.

I’ve been in banking for more than 30 years. Recently, I tried to estimate how often I’ve heard a community bank CEO say, “No matter what we do, we can’t get our NlM out of the 3s. It’s impossible.” It turns out that I can’t estimate it. The number’s so high I’ve lost count.

Whenever I hear a CEO, CLO, or CFO declare, in front of the team, that banking is a commodity, I am never surprised to look them up a few years later to see that the bank has lost its independence.

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Heard of the “Challenger Sale”? Here’s What Works Even Better…

Drawing of businessman in glasses and dark suit standing near escalator.

The past decades and even centuries have witnessed much banking innovation. Consider pneumatic capsule transportation (1799), the credit card (1950), and the ATM (1967).

Those innovations were external—easily visible to everyone. But there is also a history of innovation that’s internal to the industry, with bellwether changes to banking sales management and its increasing focus on the customer.

Over time, we went from standard bankers to “personal bankers.” For the affluent, there were

“private bankers.”

Personal bankers could open deposit accounts, but then universal bankers started to make personal loans and mortgages.

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So What’s Your Story?

“Homework? Ah, yes, I did my homework, but it didn’t quite make it here. Why? Well, my dog ate the homework. We took him to the vet to get the homework back, but the surgery took so long I was late to school, and I think I’ll have to leave school early because my dog died and I imagine it will take weeks before I can get over the sadness enough to concentrate in school.”

Kids come up with the wildest stories to explain why they are late, why they didn’t finish homework and why they can’t come to school.

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Create a System for Follow-Up

The key to repeat customers is relationships. Relationships are established and maintained through communication and follow through. In a “one to many” job such as yours, having a good system for customer follow-up is crucial to keeping your relationships healthy. Pursuing these four steps to create and maintain a follow-up system that will contribute to good customer relationships and increased sales: (more…)

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