If You Don’t Look Up, You Might Just Loose Your Head.

While I was on my morning trail run, I got to thinking.

There was a light coating of snow on the ground, the morning sun was just starting to peak through the tree limbs, I was following the soothing flow of a creek and I literally had miles of woods all to myself … and I was missing it.

I realized that, in order to not break an ankle, my eyes never left the path 4-6 feet in front of me.  I could have easily run right by a deer, coyote or hawk and never notice it because I was more concerned with the occasional rock and root in my path.

Don’t get bogged down by the rocks and roots in your day … take some time to look up and enjoy the journey.

In trail running, you need to look ahead to plan your route or you could end up doubling back to avoid a downed tree … or worse, get crowned by it.

Don’t loose your head.  Take some time to look ahead of the day-to-day “rocks and roots” to see what other obstacles or opportunities might lay ahead.   

Take care,

Eric

History...a prediction of the future?

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."

by Thomas Jefferson in the letter to
The Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin (1802)

I can't make this stuff up! It seems that our forefathers always know best and have a way of describing what we experience today with the candor and articulateness of our past.

In an environment of declining trust in our financial sector, it is important that we take a step back and remember why we are really here...for our customers. Without them, there is no us. Or, as Jerry McGuire would say, "You complete me."

The lost trust will not easily be restored. But those of you who reach out to your communities now, communicating your stability and how support your customers, will be the winners in the long run.

I am feeling a little sentimental today so that's it for now. But I have a very interesting strategy to share with you next time...and let's just say we can all learn something from the technique. Email me or post a comment if the anticipation gets the best of you.

Be extraordinary today!
Jenna

Monday Morning Quarterback

Greetings...

Can you believe its November 17th!!! Thanksgiving is around the corner and the year is speeding to a close. On Mondays, I always read the paper and am constantly puzzled and irritated by the editorial comments and articles written about the weekends football games. Nothing like being a Monday morning quarterback. You know, sitting at the table, drinking a cup of coffee and thinking about the decisions coaches made, plays the players did not make and the state of the game. I have all the answers!

Well, that is exactly what is occurring on ALL of our markets...by the newspapers and TV news. How do we counteract it?? Get ahead of the curve!

You need to be proactive with your messaging NOW more than ever! A constant flow of positive press releases, making your senior executives available to the press at any time (with even a moment's notice), and proactively suggesting topical ideas. These are all ideas to get ahead of the powerful PR curve. We know the stories of ill-conceived sub-prime lending, lax credit reviews, and overly aggressive lending tactics. However, we know we are NOT part of it...yet, if we don't communicate and get ahead of that curve, we will be lumped into the same category and pulled into the same articles.

Hold yourself up as a positive example...share stories of your lending staying local, community assistance, credit assistance programs...anything that will counteract the negative press.

As Marketers, we have to be both strategic and tactical in our thoughts, planning and approach. Within our bank and externally to those that talk about us. That includes the press, our customers, and our staff!

Constantly review the "talk" and provide your staff with talking points, Q&As, and other information to prepare them for potential questions. The questions asked in the office are only a small portion of the questions asked....Don't forget that you and your staff are representatives of the bank and are probably asked MORE questions are football games, dinner parties and at the mall that anywhere else...remind your staff to be prepared and direct people to credible resources for information (your website hopefully is one of those resources!)

With preparation, planning, and getting ahead of the curve, you can position your bank to be a leader now and in a strong leading position when the economy and industry eventual turnaround.

Cheers!

Bruce

Banks Can Learn From Obama

Barack Obama will become the 44th president of the United States for many reasons.  Among them are his exceptional communication skills.

Obama will become the country's "communicator-in chief" in just a couple of months, in large part because of the way he presented himself in a variety of challenging and stressful communication situations (does the global financial crisis and the loss of trust in banks come to mind).

Obama connected with millions of Americans on a human and personal level.  Persuading customers (or voters) is about more than having logical or sound ideas.  Facts, data and details alone won't motivate and move people. It won't inspire them.  Obama understood this and worked hard to improve his communication style.

It seems like everyone wants to sell solutions today. Actually doing it, however, requires a fundamentally different starting point when it comes to how Marketing creates and delivers customer communications.

Today, the top three challenges faced by traditional bank marketing and sales departments looking to move to a solutions selling approach are:

·       How do we shift from product-centric messaging to more customer-centric messaging?

·         How do we create more solutions-oriented, value-driven customer communications?

·       How do we drive, more consistent, high-quality customer conversations and collateral materials throughout the sales cycle? 

There’s a significant opportunity to avoid parity in your value propositions and set your company apart in the competitive marketplace by truly communicating with customers in the way they want to buy. 

Since product managers often have P&L responsibility, they may charge myopically and parochially into creating the ultimate product training, sales information, marketing content, and customer communications tool kit -- extolling the virtues of their particular offerings.

Essentially, they equip business development people to tell the customer: “Here’s what it is. Here’s what it does. Here’s why it’s good for you. And, here are some ways that we think we’re better than the competition.”

Does this seem to be the typical outline of a product launch and sales kit at your company?

If product management or marketing is going to help a business development person create and sell a “solution” for a customer – whether in a conversation or presentation – then they will have to show how their product, or particular features of that product, can be applied to help the customer accomplish a real business goal, or solve a business problem.

Unfortunately, too many product marketers, while having a good grasp of their products, don’t know enough about their customers’ problems or goals.  Ultimately this “company-centric” view can trickle out to sales and service people. As a result, aligning products and capabilities with real-world customer needs is left to chance with only the most intuitive business development people doing it naturally – the trait that sets them apart as successful consultative sales people.

The opportunity is to “codify” this intuitive solution selling approach and begin to pre-build marketing messages and sales content in an attempt to clone the best customer conversations and collateral materials for your overall sales staff,  whether it's retail or business banking.

This requires a transformation of your sales coaching and customer-facing communications.

One way to think about it: as organizations we need to move from traditional company product-centric messaging to customer problem (or goal)-centric messaging.

The key lesson here is communication...communication...communication.  It's taking the good products and services that your bank has developed and communicating to the customer or prospect how they have relevance to their particular needs today, tomorrow and in the future.

Whether or not you voted for Obama, he continues to offer valuable communication lessons to any professional who must persuade, motivate and inspire others.

Cheers,

Nick Vaglio, CFMP

Change is the Word

If there’s one word that can sum up 2008, it might be “Change.”

Not only was it the steadfast motto that helped to win a historic presidential election, but it also is inherent in so much of our industry.

Now, it would be easy to talk about the change in the government’s increased roll in banking or the change in how mortgages are looked at.  But, let’s be honest … those topic have been beat to death.

What may be the most important change to anyone who’s reading this blog is the change in consumers PERCEPTIONS of the banking industry.

When I was a credit union marketing VP, I preached to management and my Board that consumers only wanted good acces to their money, a good deal and for the staff to smile at them occasionally … they did NOT, in my opinion and in very general terms, care about our involvement in the community or in the not-for-profit “credit union difference.”

I’m not saying that I was wrong – because I wasn’t – but times have changed.

With buzz phrases like “golden parachutes,” “sub-prime lending,” “predatory lending,” and “bail out” flying around, it is no wonder that the country’s perception of banking has changed … particularly BIG BANKING.

If you’re a credit union – the “not-for-profit” message will differentiate now.  If you’re a community bank, the “good neighbor” message will strike a cord.  In short, we should get back to the fundamentals and directly address this change in perception.  Are your bank’s decisions made locally with the customer’s and community’s best interest in mind?  Now consumers will care.  Have you helped local small business to start and flourish?  Now consumers may listen.

In short, CHANGE IS GOOD.  And as small to mid-sized financial institutions, we should not only embrace it, but capitalize on it.

Take care,

Eric 

Banking's New Version of Russian Roulette

Considering the current economic crisis, it is doubly troubling when you come across an article such as the one that appeared recently in the Business section of the New York Times.  The article was titled, Drawing a Bead on Debtors, and it focused on how some banks and credit card companies are mining databases to pitch new loans to troubled borrowers.

The articles profiled the travails of Brenda Jerez, who in 2005 became ill with cancer and ran up $50,000 on her credit cards after she was forced to leave her accounting job.  She filed for bankruptcy protection last year.

For months after she emerged from insolvency last fall, 6 to 10 new credit card and auto loan offers arrived every week that specifically mentioned her bankruptcy and, despite her poor credit history, dangled a range of seemingly too-good-to-be-true financing options.

Russian Roulette, as you well know, is like the art of suicide with a little Las Vegas odds thrown in.  You load a bullet into one of the six chambers, spin the cylinder, hold the gun to your temple, pull the trigger and hope for the best.  Only, in this banking version, all the cylinders have bullets.  

The business practices outlined in the New York Times article is akin to giving a recovering drug addict a sample of cocaine or a recovering alcoholic a six-pack of beer.  It's all about the next product sale--regardless of whether it has the underpinnings of the next tsunami in the economic crisis. 

Singling out even struggling American consumers like Ms. Jerez is one of the overlooked causes of the debt boom and the resulting crisis, which threatens to choke the global economy.

Today, companies comb through an array of sources, including bank and court records, to create detailed profiles of the financial lives of more than 100 million Americans.  They then sell that information as marketing leads to banks, credit card issuers and mortgage brokers, who fiercely compete to find untapped customers--even those who would normally have trouble qualifying for the credit they were being pitched.

Sound like the next financial minefield?  Except in this case we are planting the minefield and throwing away the map.

I used to feel very proud to say I was part of the financial industry--first as a banker and now as a consultant.  But today it is hard to put the words bank and trust in the same sentence without it sounding like an oxymoron.  Unfortunately, for the majority of banks that operate with the utmost integrity, morality, and social consciousness, we all suffer from a little guilt by association.

That's why today, more than ever, the number one job for all banks is to reestablish that one-to-one trust with our customers, so they will then view us again as true partners that are looking out for their well being.  

Trust me on this one.

Cheers,

Nick Vaglio 

The Five Myths of Training

What will separate the banking winners from the losers over the next 10 years? A leading management consultant says there are three factors: number one, training; number two, training; and number three, training.

You would think that all organizations and managers recognize the importance of training. But, they don’t. Why? I’ve found that managers and organizations fall prey to the five management myths.

Myth 1
“Our people are experienced. They don’t need to be trained.”

This myth begins with the organization or manager who says, “Our people don’t need to be trained. They are all old ‘pros’ who have years of experience.” But there is a tremendous difference between experience and competence.

Think about it. Imagine a professional football coach saying, “Our people are all experienced, so we’re going to skip training camp this year. We don’t need it.” How do you think that team would stand up against the competition? How long do you think the coach would keep his job?

Ask yourself this question. Do you think that business is the same today as it was 20 years ago? Of course not. Business is changing. Management is changing. Successful organizations don’t do business the same today as they did five years ago, or 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago.

Myth 2
"We tried it and it didn’t work.”

I’ve heard executives say, “When Harley Hotshot came to town, we put half of our people through his training and they haven’t sold any more than the rest of the team.” There are two very important things to remember about training. Number one: training is not an event, it is a process. And number two: in order to be effective, training must be ongoing.

Training is a little like calisthenics. If you haven’t worked out for years, and you jump right into a heavy exercise program, you’re going to be uncomfortable. So whether you’re talking about training or calisthenics, if you do it occasionally you grow sore; if you do it regularly you grow strong

Myth 3
“Our organization (or department, or division) is too small.”

It’s important to understand that training is equally important for organizations of all sizes. Consider this. If an organization has one hundred people, and if one person is not operating at maximum capacity, that’s one percent of the entire organization. On the other hand, if an organization has just two people, it may be easy to rationalize “We can’t justify training” … but, if one of those two people is not operating at maximum effectiveness, that’s 50 percent of the entire organization. So, training is equally important to organizations of all sizes.

Myth 4
“We can’t afford it.”

This is a cop-out. If you think the cost of training is expensive, compare it with the cost of incompetence! In today’s service-oriented environment poorly trained staff will drive your customer’s right into the camp of your competition.

Myth 5
“We don’t have time.

This is an absolute exercise in self-deception. If you are like most executives, I’m sure you sometimes ask yourself, “Why is it we never have time to do it right, but always make time to do it over?”

The manager who says, “We’re so busy we don’t have time for training” makes about as much sense as the woodcutter who says, “I’m so busy cutting down trees, I don’t have time to sharpen my ax.”

Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I have three hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend the first two hours sharpening my ax.”

Now, let’s address a final point. How long should you continue training your staff? The answer is how long do you want your people to keep improving?”

Cheers!

Nick Vaglio

Brilliant marketing

I know that I just posted a few minutes ago, but you MUST watch this. Starbucks marketing at its finest! Here's the link: YouTube Starbucks Video

The Real Financial Crisis

Some people have a knack for making profound statements with little effort. Nick Vaglio, the newest member of the MarketMatch team is one of those people. While stating the obvious, Nick said that the real financial crisis isn't the credit crunch or the housing bubble, it's the lost trust in their financial institutions.

He makes a good point. Think about it. Consumers are increasingly skeptical of the financial services industry and it is up to us to help ease their mind. Business Development Officers will need to reconsider their methods and become more like relationship managers than hunters and gatherers.

I know many of you have been communicating your safety and soundness to your communities, and that's GREAT! But we need to do more. When small businesses need help with their cash management they are going to their CPA's for guidance. Are those CPA's sending the referral to you or your competition? Building those networks will take a little time and finesse but will reap great rewards.

Just remember that we do not have the same fear our customers do because we understand. Plumbers don't worry about leaks and mechanics laugh at a bad starter. Remember that your customers are not bankers. Nurture the relationships and the rewards will be yours for the taking!

Remember to be extraordinary!!
Jenna