So how do you define “quality” of your customer base?  I’d like to propose two criteria, both of which are given equal weight:

1) Profitability–your ability to make money from the people you do business with

2) Engagement–the amount that people give a damn about your bank or credit union (and thus, the more they are likely to be loyal, advocate for you, generate WOM, etc.)

In my experience, community banks and credit unions have a great deal of progress to make on both of these criteria. We find ourselves with lots of unprofitable customers because we don’t have the guts, market positioning and focus to say no. We don’t communicate our profitability expectations to customers, and don’t really even enforce the unspoken expectations.

We also find ourselves with very very few–if any at all–engaged customers. We may have a few not-disengaged customers, but have very few people who are truly excited about who we are, what we do, and how we are aligned with them. We have very few customers who have chosen to bank with us because they feel we are the one and only true fit for them. Instead, they have chosen us because we were most convenient, best priced, or passively recommended by a friend.

Do you have what it takes to improve your customer base–or just make it bigger?

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As I was reading Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin the other day (a book that’s been on my list forever, and I’ve finally gotten to), I realized Seth had given me a new way to phrase my message: create something that can get criticized. Our whole business culture is based on the idea of not getting criticized–the idea that criticism is a bad thing, to be avoided.  The truth is that if you want to change the world (which I’m assuming you do–if not, you might want to unsubscribe from this blog), you WANT to get criticized. Because when you get criticized, it means you’ve created something WORTH reacting to.  Most ideas and work is so boring that nobody reacts, because it’s not worthy of a reaction.

What can you create today that will get criticized…and therefore noticed?

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That’s probably why I really enjoyed writing the newest position paper on banking business strategy and branding we created for Creative Brand Communications. We called it “The Decommoditization Manifesto, Part 1” and it’s now available for free download when you register.

I’m happy to say it’s already getting great reviews and feedback. How many “parts” will there be? Not sure yet–we’ll have to see as it comes, but I’m thinking at least three parts if not more.

I hope you’ll download the position paper now, and enjoy!

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Since that question I get is so consistent, my answer has become equally so.  I think banking is a great industry to be an entrepreneur in, because:

• There are VERY few real entrepreneurs in banking. There are lots of people who started or own banks, but that doesn’t really make them entrepreneurial necessarily.
• The industry bar is quite low. There’s not a whole lot of real innovation happening.
• Banking is ripe for revolution. Many of the old guys holding the keys to the banking kingdom are very protectionist, doing whatever is possible to resist change.
• Banking is among the most important sectors to the success of our nation. I truly believe that. In a funny way, improving the banking world is an act of patriotism.

If you’re reading this, there’s probably a good chance you’re in banking, too. Why do YOU like it?

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Maybe there is, in a few cases, on a B2B level—you might argue LendingTree is affiliate marketing for lenders.  But that’s not what I mean.  There’s not, to my knowledge, any affiliate marketing program that could leverage the millions of retail customers out there. For instance, how many Bank of America customers have blogs or websites? Probably millions. Why not take a page from Amazon.com’s book (pun intended) and set up a killer affiliate program to drive traffic to the bank and kick back a reward to the referring site for accounts opened online?

I think I know why.

Because that’s not what bankers do.

Because that’s not how banking works.

And because, likely, nobody has ever really thought about it.

If you can’t tell already from my first few posts on this blog, one of my big pet peeves is that bankers don’t tend to look at business concepts (like affiliate marketing) and try to figure out how it might apply in their industry.

In my opinion, the best and most important activity any entrepreneurial banker can do, is this:

Look at other industries, see what’s successful, and then ask, “how can I apply this to banking?”

I’m not here to tell you affiliate marketing should be the future of banking.  I don’t have an opinion at this point, because I haven’t given it much thought.  Maybe I can think it over and write another post about that.  But I do know this:  at least I remembered to ask myself “how can this apply to banking?”  The answer to that question is less important than the fact that it was asked in the first place.  That’s how innovation happens.

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• being an entrepreneur
• business philosophies
• banking
• “innovation”
• making people give a damn about what you do
• many combinations of the above, and surely a few random ingredients tossed in for good measure

Specifically, if I had to state the the thesis of this blog, it would be this.

I get fired up about injecting some entrepreneurialism and business thinking into banking.  Today’s banks are run by bankers, not business people or entrepreneurs–and the industry needs a dose of outside, ballsy business thinking worse than anything else.

You may disagree with me already.  I kinda hope so–now you’ve got a reason to keep reading.

Just so you know, in case you follow my other endeavors at all, this blog will not be redundant to the blogs run by my companies (http://creative-brand.com/thestory and http://psstmarketing.wordpress.com).  This blog will be broader, more personal and more, well, me.

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