Community Bank Consulting Blog

Recessions, Ethics & Opportunity

I'm engaged in an "interesting" dialog with Windstream Communications, my local telephone company. They sold me Unlimited Nationwide Calling.  I noticed on my last bill a bunch of "regular" calls that I was charged ten cents a minute for.  By regular, I mean a number like 704-555-5555.  Not an information service or adult content number.

When I called and made them aware of the error, they began to explain their definition of unlimited.

Yes, you heard me correctly.  Their definition of UNLIMITED required a definition not available in any English dictionary.

Here's the way Merriam-Webster defines it:

Main Entry: un·lim·it·ed 

Pronunciation: \-ˈli-mə-təd\

Function: adjective

Date: 15th century

1 : lacking any controls : unrestricted <unlimited access>
2 : boundless, infinite <unlimited possibilities>
3 : not bounded by exceptions : undefined <the unlimited and unconditional surrender of the enemy — Sir Winston Churchill>

Odd... the definition Windstream Communications used relied on a disclosure to change the definition of unlimited.  Turns out, their definition of unlimited is nothing like the actual definition of the word.

What's my point?  

In business if you market something that requires a disclosure to modify the meaning of the word or words used to describe it, there is a good chance your ethics are going to be questioned.

I've been speaking English for over forty years.  I can't recall a single time in my life when I was ever confused or unclear about the definition of unlimited.

I began to ponder the true meaning of other statements I have recently seen in advertising...

How much should free checking cost?

How many trips are you allowed to make to an all-you-care to eat buffet?

How long does a lifetime guarantee last?

How many oil changes are included from the dealer that offers "free oil changes for life?"

Recession or no recession... if you have to take dramatic liberties in the way you describe products or services, it's unlikely you are going to hook new customers and keep them for the long term.

Deception may bring new prospects in the door, but it sure as heck won't earn their respect or encourage them to stick around forever.

Here's the great news... when you start a relationship with a customer based in truth, chances are good they will be loyal to you for a long time.  There is the opportunity!

New Year's Resolution: Know Your Target Market

I've been working in and with community banks for nearly 20 years.  Over the years I have asked this question many times:  "Who is your target market?"  Almost 100% of the time community bankers cannot answer that question quickly and succinctly.

If I were to ask you right now "Who is your target market?"  Could you answer the question concisely and without hesitation?

Would you answer ”members of our community?”  That is the most common answer I receive.  If your bank operates in a tiny community, or has a massive marketing budget, that's a fine answer.  Frankly, few community banks operate in markets that small or have budgets that large these days.  Bottom line; for most community banks that answer is not specific enough.

Two very important reasons to have a target market are:

1. Focus… so you know where to find clients and prospects.
2. You serve them.  You know their life.  You know their issues.  The people you work with should know you are dedicated to them.

Many banks market by what I call the "spray and pray" method.  Spray and pray means you spray your marketing message anywhere someone with a pulse (and hopefully a checkbook) will see and/or hear it, and you pray for responses.

With very few exceptions, spray and pray marketing is expensive and ineffective.

How specific do you need to be on identifying a target market?  You need to be so specific that you know who they are and where you can find them.

Here is an example.  A community bank that specializes in small service businesses may choose property management firms as a target market.  Let's go further, let's say this community bank is located in Raleigh, NC and chooses to serve property management firms in the entire state of North Carolina.

Who is their target market?  Property management firms located in the state of North Carolina.

Where will they find them?  Property management associations.  State licensing boards.  Directories.  Trade publications.  And the list could go on.

What will they market to them?  Electronic banking services, such as ACH origination.  Remote deposit capture.  Treasury management services.  Real estate loans structured to meet their needs.  Lockbox services.

See the value?  By being this specific, we know exactly who we are marketing to and can easily figure out places to find them.  Over time, the ultimate goal is to build trust and loyalty from our target markets.  By building relationships with a specific target market or target markets we are able to ask our clients and prospects what products and services they need and can respond very quickly to those needs.

Is it okay to have more than one target market?  Absolutely, as long as you have staff to serve them.

Consider making a corporate New Year's resolution to identify one or more target markets!

Reminder: Building a Blogging Strategy Webinar Tomorrow!

Building a Blogging Marketing Strategy
Date:  October 13 from 2:00-3:30 Eastern
Facilitators:  Eric Cook, Bea Fields and Jeff Simpkins
Where?  Online via webinar and telephone
Cost:  $49.00

NOTE:  This webinar is not just for bankers.  It is a strategic planning session for anyone and everyone who wants to design a solid blogging marketing strategy!

Do any of the following scenarios sound like you?

• I would love to have a great-looking, professional blog...but I have no idea how to start!
• I visit my colleagues blogs and think...gosh...I really need to be doing this to reach my target market.
• I so wish I could increase the number of people in my mailing list without having to bombard people with e-mail, and I want to find a way to pull people to my website or blog.
• I am so ready to see my website (or blog) climb to the top of the first page on Google, and I am sick and tired of buying Google adwords.

If you answered YES! to any of these questions, then the Building a Blogging Marketing Strategy Webinar may be the most important event you will attend in 2009, AND it will get you pumped and ready to make 2010 a banner year for your business.

During this session, we will present the following, and we are going to lay it out in spades:

We will:

1. Explain the critical importance of building a solid plan and foundation for opening a blog

2. Teach you how to use a blog as the hub of your overall social networking strategy.

3. Provide you with 5 questions to answer to establish exactly the target market you most want to reach with your blog.

4. Answer all of those looming questions in the back of your mind such as "How will I have the time to do this?" "How do I get started?"  "How will I monitor negative comments on my blog?"  "What do I write about when I have writer's block?"

Sign Up Today for the Building a Blogging Marketing Strategy Webinar

Along with this webinar, we will be providing you with a simple yet robust strategic planning document which includes the 20 questions you need to answer before you start blogging and a project planning spreadsheet to get you going.  These two documents alone will be worth the price of admission.

The session includes:

• One 90-minute session on designing a blogging strategy
• A 20-question blogging and social networking strategic planning document to jumpstart your blog
• A copy of the video/audio recording of the presentation, easily downloadable online for review
• Access to our Knowledge Genie for this class...which will include a few additional resources to jumpstart your process.

Don't wait.   Sign up today for Building a Blogging Marketing Strategy

Capturing Attention Through Storytelling - Part 4

Master storyteller Ira Glass concludes his discussion on storytelling by discussing being genuine and avoiding two pitfalls.

Capturing Attention Through Storytelling - Part 2

Master storyteller Ira Glass continues his discussion on storytelling by telling sometimes the right decision is to dump a story that is just not working.

Capturing Attention Through Storytelling - Part 1

Ira Glass is a master storyteller.  He is best known for his radio show on NPR called This American Life.  His radio program is so popular that it resulted in a spin off on TV.

Storytelling is not only important in broadcast, it is also a great way to build relationships that result in building business with no selling required.

Listen as Ira shares some of his storytelling secrets for success.

Initiate change. Who me?

I've interviewed Steve Kruskamp, E-Commerce Marketing Manager at 1st Mariner Bank, Baltimore, MD on BankTalkRadio twice.  I love having Steve as a guest because his energy is contagious.  He is vibrant and willing to initiate change.

When I asked Steve if he encounters resistance in his quest to be innovative, his answer was something like "of course," yet he moves forward while still "playing by the rules."  He often hears "Steve, let's wait and see" when he suggests trying new things, yet he manages to move forward.  Steve is an initiator; the brand he represents is stronger for it.

Seth Godin did a blog post a few days ago entitled The initiator that starts "I'm just here to learn" and concludes with the question "How often does your brand initiate rather than react?"

Learning is a great!  Duplicating success is great!  Following is mediocre.

Are you an initiator or always a follower?  What is the real risk of being an initiator?

Follow a leader like Steve... take being an initiator out for a test drive!

Why Banks Can’t Afford Not to Train Their Employees

This is another guest post by my friend Jeannette Paladino of Write Speak Sell.  She is former SVP & Marketing Director of the Bowery Savings Bank.

By Jeannette Paladino
Writer-in-Chief
Write Speak Sell
http://writespeaksell.com

In my last post, I recommended 10 activities that community banks can undertake to retain their customers and bring in new ones.  These activities are wonderful ways to communicate with your customers at very little cost.  But your employees need to be trained in following through on your promises. 

When times are tough, below-the-line investments in training, PR and other so-called non-revenue producing programs get cut.  When banks do keep the training train running, employees will often find excuses not to attend – often because they are afraid their bosses will react negatively for the time taken away from the job.   There is only one person in the entire bank who can make training work.  Guess who?  The CEO.

Let me give you a concrete example of why employees need training.  A major money center bank in New York mounted an expensive print and radio advertising campaign touting their excellent customer service.  Their ads promised customers “$5 if your wait at the teller line exceeds five minutes.”  They spent a bundle on this campaign.  So one day (this is before ATMs became ubiquitous) I was online at the bank behind an elderly gentleman.  He had completed his transaction and then pushed a $20 bill back to the teller and asked for small bills.  Her angry response:  “I just gave you this money.  Why didn’t you tell me when I was counting out the money that you wanted small bills!?”  She was loud enough to make both the customer and me take a step back.  Down the drain went some of the money spent on that advertising campaign not to mention to the loss of good will.

Getting back to the CEO.  The CEO has to be 100% committed to training.  My CEO at the former Bower Savings Bank was a stickler for training.  He said everyone went to training, and so everyone did.  No manager would dare tell an employee she couldn’t attend training.  Managers who attended the management development course I taught began to speak a common vocabulary.  If a team was trying to solve a problem, the manager could ask “where are you in the process?”  If they were still “gathering facts” he knew they were at the beginning of the process.  Maybe it was time to intervene and learn why they weren’t making more progress.

Tellers and CSRs – the front-line warriors – need technical training, for sure.  But how much time and money does your bank devote to training them in how to talk to a customer?  Do you do role-plays to help them with the common questions/problems that arise?  Do they receive sales training so they know the questions to ask that might get the customer to buy another service?  Well, you say, they should be getting this training on the floor from their supervisors, not in the classroom.  But how good are these supervisors at training tellers or CSRs?  Have they been trained themselves? 

There are so many situations where service can fall between the cracks.  Is the representative at the information desk trained to find a replacement while she is away for a few minutes?  No?  There goes another customer who doesn’t want to wait.  (I know. I’ve been there).   Is the guard at the door trained to direct customers to the right people or does he curtly wave them over to wait at the end of the line at the Information Desk when he could have sent them to the platform person who opens accounts?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions about training, then money is walking out the door as you read this post.  Until you can demonstrate a real difference between your bank and the one across the street, then it will be well-trained employees who give you the competitive edge.

--- Jeannette Paladino, Writer-in-Chief, Write Speak Sell, http://writespeaksell.com, and former SVP, marketing director, the Bowery Savings Bank

__________________________________

Comments by Jeff Simpkins
Community Bank Consulting, Inc.

Thank you Jeannette for another excellent blog post!  I want to reinforce what Jeannette said about the CEO/president setting the tone for the importance of training.  Many years ago I was a trainer for a major software company that provided data processing to community banks.  I used to request that the president/CEO of the bank at a minimum show up at a training and be seen.  Neither Jeannette nor I are suggesting senior executives need to be trained to perform administrative tasks; it is however important that senior executives show interest and approval when their staff is involved in training!

Ideal Clients

I am currently leading a group through a program called Book Yourself Solid.  The program is based on the book of the same name written by Michael Port.  I have modified the work for community banks and am seeing amazing results!

I have been a teacher/instructor, consultant/coach for nearly twenty years.  One of the things I love most about my work is when I am reminded how helping others be successful teaches me as much or more than I am teaching them.

I was working with someone earlier today on an exercise in which we describe our ideal clients.  Here is an answer I received:  "When I am working with an ideal client my heart overflows with warmth and love for them."

It's sometimes easy to forget that we do our best work when our hearts overflow with warmth and love!

Wishing you only ideal clients!

Jeff Simpkins, Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach
Community Bank Consulting, Inc.
www.CommunityBankConsulting.com
Office Direct:  (704) 644-3868

LinkedIn:  http://linkedin.jeffsimpkins.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffsimpkins
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/jeffsimpkins
Free Webinar Wednesdays:  http://www.FreeWebinarWednesdays.com/
Weekly Radio Show:  http://BankTalkRadio.net (BankTalkRadio.net on iTunes)

We help community banks and finance professionals:
• Reach prospects and clients using low-cost and no-cost marketing tools
• Deliver world class customer service by choosing and using the right technology

Why community bankers have never had it so good and 10 things they can do to make it even better

This is a guest post by my friend Jeannette Paladino of Write Speak Sell.  She is former SVP & Marketing Director of the Bowery Savings Bank.

I love the "back to basics" reminders Jeannette gives us.  It's important to remember, all age groups are not marketed to the same way.  Always start your marketing by knowing who your target audience is for the message!

             ___________________________________________

What?  I can see some community bankers shaking their heads.  This is one of the worst periods in banking we’ve seen since the great depression, they say.

 

Yes, times are tough for many banks, both large and small, but let’s look at it from the perspective of your customers and potential customers.  Their portfolios have sunk like a rock in a pond, and the “big boys” who were supposed to know how it’s done – think Citigroup, Merrill Lynch – got it all wrong.  People are scared.  They are going back to basics.  The old adage: think globally, act locally, has been shortened to act locally.  People are afraid to invest their money with banks that are on government life support.  They are back to the basics and sticking close to home.

 

This is a golden opportunity for community bankers to show customers why they are the best place to bring their business now.  You may not be able to compete on breadth of services or offer the highest rates.  But what you can offer is service.  It’s all about how you communicate with your community and the people who walk through your door.  And the CEO has to be 100% committed to communications otherwise it won’t work.  The need to communicate wisely and often with customers is essential to bring them back “home.”

 

So the reason why community banks have never had it so good is because the customers are there to be picked up.  They want the comfort of dealing with people they know.

 

How much is all this communicating going to cost?  How about the price of a turkey at Thanksgiving?  No joking, there are so many activities you can do without breaking the bank.  We did many things that worked well when I was marketing director of The Bowery Savings Bank in New York (since gobbled up by Home Savings and then others).  In New York terms, The Bowery was a “community bank” because even though it had $6 billion in deposits back then, that was a drop in the bucket compared to Citi and Chase.  But we had a reputation that far exceeded our size because of our service and customer communications, which the CEO considered the most important function in the Bank (no kidding). 

 

So here are 10 activities you can undertake without busting the bank:

 

1. Raffle a turkey at Thanksgiving.  Man, this is so corny.  But it sure does work.  Put a picture of a turkey in the window of each branch to lure people in to fill out a raffle coupon.  People love anything “free.”  You will also begin to build a list of potential customers for future contact.  It’s a way to start a conversation.

 

2. Help customers read their statements.  Many elderly customers have difficulty reading their paper statements.  Hold a “Bring in Your Statement” day once a week and station some interns or trainees at the information desk to help customers who have vision problems or don’t understand how to read a statement.  You will make their adult children – also potential customers – very happy.  And you might convince some to dispense with paper statements.

 

3. Let community groups use your conference space.  Open your doors to community groups and let them use your conference rooms for meetings, even after hours.  Don’t charge them and supply free soda and cookies.

 

4. Community bulletin board.  Put up a simple corkboard near the entrance to the bank and let people post notices of houses for sale, school courses, etc.

 

5. Give courses on non-financial topics.  Bring in experts for free courses on gardening, using the Internet, how to fix a car, and other subjects that are local to your community.

 

6. Sponsor seminars on personal and home safety.  Invite the local police department to conduct a series of seminars on personal safety and how to protect your home.  The PD community relations department will be eager to do this.

 

7. Let customers bring in loose change for cash (without wrapping them).  In New York, Commerce Bank (now TD Bank) built its reputation on the coin machines in their lobbies.  Anybody can come in and drop coins in a machine in return for paper money.  I got $116.35.  Many end up as customers.

 

8. Let customers vote for the employee of the month.  Put a plain old ballot box at the front door.  It will improve service without your having to do anything as employees vie for the honor.
9. Start a Christmas/Chanukah Club.  Again, it’s the simple things people are looking for, reminders of the good old days.  Make it easy to transfer money between accounts or let customers use PayPal to make deposits of new money.

 

10. Hire a pianist to play at lunch hour.  In New York, the old Manhattan Savings Bank had a pianist playing at lunch hour for years and people came in just for the music.  They also had skaters in their window at the holidays, but that’s another story.

 

These activities are wonderful ways to communicate with your customers at very little cost.  But your employees need to be trained in following through on your promises.  My next article will be about the importance of training and why it will save you money in the long run.

--- Jeannette Paladino, Writer-in-Chief, Write Speak Sell, http://writespeaksell.com, and former SVP, marketing director, the Bowery Savings Bank