banner-blog

The Two-Question Quiz Business Bankers Must Pass

Posted June 04, 2015 by Susan Bell

Two-question quiz:

1) Are you a business banker?

2) Do you subscribe to The Wall Street Journal?

If your answer to #1 was "Yes," then your answer to #2 darn-well better be "Yes" too.

Here's why...

newspaper_chodra_sm

Every single day, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) features important, insightful articles that affect your clients' businesses. Its reporters are among the best in their field, and they take a great deal of time researching and writing each article, resulting in consistently high-quality journalism. The WSJ doesn’t only cover financial and capital markets; it covers industries and business dynamics that affect small businesses. Just this morning, I read this about the furniture industry:

“’We’ve got a lot of people who are interested in [the furniture] business,’ said Mr. Epperson, [an investment banker] who isn’t involved in the Ashley [Furniture] sales process. Driving that interest, he said, are the recovery of the housing market and a belief that millennials will soon become big buyers of furniture as they settle down and purchase homes.”

A good business banker will leverage this quick knowledge in how he or she adds value to existing furniture store customers and how to prospect to new ones.

Give 'em what they want

According to Barlow and JD Power research, business owners have said over and over again that one of their most important criteria in choosing a banker is that he or she know their business and industry. The WSJ is a powerful tool to help give business owners what they want—resulting in higher client satisfaction and more new clients switching to your bank.

The success of Live Oak Bank supports the effectiveness of bankers who understand their clients' industry. This Wilmington, North Carolina bank has built a financial services business that specifically caters to niche industries such as funeral homes, dentists, and financial advisors and is among the most profitable banks in the U.S. Its model proves knowing your customers’ business and industry works.

The numbers don't lie

If banks do the math, it's a simple decision. The price of an online subscription to The Wall Street Journal is $28.99/month ($347.88/year) and even less if you subscribe as a large group under their corporate pricing.

According to Glassdoor.com, the average business banker earns $72,000 per year, some much more. Add to that the cost of layers upon layers of management. If banks are going to spend that much on salaries, plus the enormous cost structures needed to deliver personalized, hands-on service from brick and mortar locations—what’s a few extra hundred dollars to equip your expensive salespeople with the tools they need, which in turn helps them support that business model's profitably? The answer is obvious.

The perfect match

Like peas and carrots. When it comes to understanding your client's business and industry, the perfect combination for business bankers is:

  • Vertical IQ
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • Your local business news publication (if applicable)

Is your resume up-to-date? Without the in-depth industry knowledge offered by these three resources, a business banker is little more than an overpaid door-to-door salesperson. And if that's the case, banks should consider creating a new, lower-cost business model that leverages inside sales platforms like OnDeck, LendingClub, and their other non-bank competitors are using.

Instead of checking out the want ads, spend some time reviewing The Wall Street Journal, along with the Vertical IQ Industry Profile for your client's industry, to increase your professional value.

Tags: bankers, industry, Industry research, research, The Wall Street Journal

Subscribe to our Blog

  
SideBarAd2.jpg

Subscribe to Our Blog

Recent Posts