It’s an unprecedented time for small business bankers. Opportunities and threats loom. Bankers that act decisively in pursuing a challenger strategy will seize opportunities that eclipse the threats.
Recent bank failures and subsequent acquisitions and mergers have shaken small business customers, increasing their concerns regarding the reliability of their banking partners. Pain points that were accepted as part of doing business with banks are increasingly unacceptable. Fintechs took notice of this trend years ago and became aggressive challengers, eroding banks’ market share by delivering superior customer experiences and value add.
Nothing like heightened difficulties and threats as an agent of change and opportunity. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity," Albert Einstein
How can small business bankers change to seize opportunities? By moving away from delivering “nouns,” that is, products, to enabling “verbs,” that is, action on the part of customers. “Make your business run better and grow” is the new rallying cry.
Figure: From Nouns to Verbs
To execute, bankers need to pursue a three prong strategy: harness the power of data, deliver analytics and actions to customers, and turbo-charge employees to be advisers.
Figure: The Challenger Formula
Executing the challenger formula is not easy and for many banks, will require partnering with tech providers. To help bankers evaluate prospective partners, Celent examines eight of them in its Challenger report: Autobooks, BankiFi, FIS Business Hub, Monit (including an overview of Apiture Business Insights powered by Monit), 9Spokes, Personetics, TCS Customer Intelligence & Insights, and upSWOT.
Remember…“Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them,” William Arthur Ward
