Bankers are always on the hunt for the secrets to being more successful in sales. Yet today so many are avoiding embracing video-based virtual selling.

With the pandemic end unknown, that avoidance will negatively impact performance short and long term. If you want to beat the competition, win faster, and guarantee retention of existing client relationships there is no choice but to embrace virtual selling.

Often community banks seem to take a backwards approach to branching. First, they see a property available for sale or rent or they are approached by a real estate broker or an insider with a property that would be great for a branch. Then they start to look at the market to see if it would indeed support a branch in that location. That seems like putting the cart before the horse. 

Unlike prior years, there are even greater uncertainties that financial institutions face as they navigate the pandemic with priorities rightfully shifted towards stabilizing and supporting their customers.

But when it does come time to relocate, consolidate, or expand your footprint and choose the right branch location, the best approach is to analyze your current market and identify communities or neighborhoods that would support a new branch and enhance your existing branch network to best serve those that depend on your services.

A recent survey by McKinsey & Company estimates that more than 25 percent of small businesses anticipate declaring bankruptcy in the next four months. It is highly likely that some of these businesses are your customers.

Planning and budgeting in these uncertain times requires a responsive approach to on-going change. Comprehensive, up-to-date local market data analyses overlaid on your internal data and supported by expert interpretation will supply you with the insights you need to build into your 2021 plan.

From the 1998 best selling book, Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, MD, the story stresses the need for embracing change because they keep moving the cheese.

For a community bank with a network of branches, “cheese” is represented by the deposits and relationships that each branch develops. And in response to the changing market, banks must adapt by adjusting their branch strategy accordingly.

By mining market intelligence data, it’s possible to forecast deposit balances in specific geo-coded locations.

Historically, bank branches have been viewed as a deposit gathering source. Over the years as a banker and a consultant, I have encountered many bank branches that were on sites owned or offered by insiders or friends of insiders. In many cases, that has left the bank with a marginal or unprofitable branch. Management needs to figure out how to deal with some of these legacy branches.