In my January blog “5 Reasons Every Business Banker Should Have Industry Niches,” I noted that successful bankers should study up and figure out the industries on which to focus. One factor you should consider is industry profitability. Generally speaking, profitable companies accumulate lots of assets and can therefore afford to pay...

When I was a private banker in the late ‘90s in Wilmington, North Carolina, I found a successful niche prospecting law firms. There were a couple of things I learned first-hand about attorneys that I believe contributed to my success:

As a private banker, you are tasked with understanding the “big picture” of your clients’ finances–everything from their checking account to their invested assets. And as more and more banks bring financial planning services in-house, odds are, it’s more important than ever to your own financial goals to have an understanding of how...