Challenge: Banking The Wealthy

I don’t have to explain to you the appeal of the affluent
individual customer, the wealthy business owner, investor,
or professional. You’re already well aware of the products
and services you can offer this appealing market, and the
fees that go with it.

But if you’re competing with other financial services providers
for these customers, you have to demonstrate your appeal to
wealthy individuals, that is, why they should work with you
instead of someone else. And I can help you, and your staff,
see the relationship from the customer’s perspective.

A Typical Case
Imagine that I am an older affluent business owner who has
been banking with your institution for over 20 years. For the
last five, I have worked with a banker named Mark, who knew
a lot about me and my business.

Mark has moved on - retired, or been promoted - and my new
banker is Mary, who was hired by the bank when she graduated
from college two years ago.

You see, in Mary, a bright, energetic employee who is very
comfortable with technology and your software. She’s outgoing
and a team player. Everyone likes her.

But you might be surprised at what I see, at the questions and
concerns that pop into my mind when I meet my new banker:

I suppose I’ll have to start all over again, paperwork
and questions…

She’s a little younger than my daughter, what could she know about what it takes to run a business for 20 or 30 years?…

Why can’t I have somebody more like Mark? …

Patience? Answer Questions? Not Likely…
A common response to the above scenario is something like,
“Mary’s very good, and given a little time, she’ll demonstrate
that she’ll be an excellent banker for you, even better than Mark
was.”

The important question is…

Who is going to give her a little time to demonstrate her value?

Certainly not the wealthy customer!

After all, what kinds of habits and characteristics define customers
who have built successful businesses through decades of work?

They are used to asking questions, not answering them.

They are accustomed to taking responsibility and making
decisions quickly.They don’t like “I’ll get back to you” answers.

They are proud. They’ve done something difficult, worked
hard, and they want to feel the respect of others; their
appreciation for what they have accomplished.

How much time do you think someone like that is going to
give his or her new banker? Even an experienced banker
has a limited time to make a connection with the customer,
to prove that the bank isn’t going to waste the customer’s
time, that you will be responsive and helpful. And when
your bankers are young (as is increasingly common),
your customers may just assume they don’t know what
they’re talking about.

That may not be fair, but it is how things work.

Timing Is Everything
Longtime “private” bankers like Mark, that we started
with, have learned what to expect from these customers.
They not only know how they act and feel, what they
value, they understand how tax and personal considerations
lead to careful management of the customer’s financial data.
They have both the why and the how they need to work
with the customer.

Your new banker will learn all of that on the job…eventually.
Will your prospects and customers wait around for that to
happen? Will revenue opportunities be lost? What will your
risk profile look like, for these customers, while your banker
is getting to know this territory?

The Obstacles
How different is the world of the wealthy business owner,
or highly successful investor, from the world of your
young banker or analyst?

To work with affluent individuals, your staff have to overcome
some of the assumptions they’ve built up from their own experience.
For instance:

It is hard for someone who has been earning a steady salary
for just a couple of years to imagine why someone would defer income! Why would anyone delay revenue?

Analysts and bankers are trained to watch for deliberate manipulations by customers who seek, at best, to inflate
their capacity to handle debt, and at worst, to commit fraud.
What is their first reaction when they encounter the explicit manipulation of tax information by these wealthy customers?

Your relationships with wealthy customers are in danger
the minute they sense hesitation from the banker, or field
questions (usually generated by credit analysts) that they
feel question their motives and integrity. Once these assumptions
and misunderstandings are revealed, the customer’s preconceptions
are confirmed…and another lender, at another bank, is about to
get an opportunity.In a sense, you have to find a way to overcome
the personal experience and the previous, more general training of
your employees to help them understand the unique aspects of
lending to highly affluent individual customers. And you can’t do
that by burning through prospective customers while your staff
learn to think more like wealthy business owners.

I Am Your Virtual Customer…
…and his or her accountant.

I have deep experience with these types of customers,
a thorough understanding of the needs and assumptions
of bankers and credit analysts, and the technical accounting
knowledge to demystify personal and business tax returns.

Through my seminars, I bring the typical wealthy customer
to your staff, along with all the financial concerns, and
corresponding financial reporting manipulations, that make
for more opaque tax returns. I help your employees see why
I might manage income and expenses in various ways, and
how to unravel these manipulations.

At the same time, your staff learn how to zero in on the key
questions, how to quickly assess cash flow (through my
No Questions Asked Cash Flow Model) so they know whether
or not they need to pursue additional information from the borrower.

After all, these borrowers are impatient and unaccustomed
to answering lots of questions. You will only get the chance
to ask your best questions, and I can teach your bankers
and analysts how to prioritize their concerns so they get the
information they need without wearing out their welcome with
the customer.

And we can do all that with my case studies, instead of
practicing with real money and real customer relationships.

Please explore my course offerings for more detail about
what your bankers and credit analysts will learn from my
seminars. And for greater impact, customizing my
material to reflect your own models and procedures will
develop more effective employees all the more quickly.

I invite you to contact me if you would like to chat further
about wealthy individual customers, and the challenges
your staff face in quickly building profitable relationships
with them.

 

 

 

© 2008 BankSems LLC All Rights Reserved
Unauthorized use of material on this website is strictly prohibited.