In a recent PrecisionLender Market Insights report, Measuring Relationship Manager Performance: Proving Impact & Dispelling Myths, we found that, at any given bank, when faced with the same opportunities, some relationship managers (RMs) will perform better than others. We demonstrated this in multiple ways across all key metrics - volume, pricing, fees, risk reduction, and ancillary business.
This finding becomes one of those glass half full/half empty problems. On the one hand, it highlights your top performing RMs and helps you hone in on what makes them perform so well. On the flip side, it also makes you painfully aware of the revenue you’re losing because of RM underperformance.
Read the report: Measuring Relationship Manager Performance: Proving Impact & Dispelling Myths
In other words, your best RMs give you comfort, but they also point to how much you’re not getting from the rest of your team.
For example, take fee incidence, which varied widely from RM to RM. While market aggregate fees show measurable variance by product type, deal size and term, the most significant driver of fee performance is the RM. Some RMs approach each situation with confidence and include fees in all deal proposals, offering modest concessions where needed. Others assume defeat and end up with no-fee portfolios.
Listen to the podcast: Winning Tactics of the Top RMs: Performance-Based Pricing
According to another recent report from PrecisionLender’s data, The State of Commercial Banking: Jan. 2019 Market Analysis, fee discipline has improved. And we believe that’s because banks are fostering cultures that encourage and support RMs to go after fee-based business.
So, what are the top RMs doing that’s putting them ahead of the rest?
We put a whole list within the report, and have brought Gita Thollessen, SVP of Client Success at PrecisionLender, onto our Purposeful Banker podcast to talk through some of these tactics, but here are the top three:
1. They act like trusted advisors
RMs have a unique opportunity to be a resource and offer advice to their customers. The highest performing RMs are not order takers. They’re providing counsel and suggestions, even before the customer identifies the need or desire. This helps them build trust and keeps their customers coming back to them over the competition.
2. They deliver tailored solutions
No one-size-fits-all here. The top performing RMs offer tailored solutions that meet the needs of their customers and beyond. This doesn’t mean they have to work outside of the bank’s standard product offerings. Sometimes, it’s as simple as finding the optimal credit structure.
3. They know what matters to the customer
Price isn’t the only piece that matters to the customer, and the top RMs know this. They build deep relationships with their customers to understand what they truly need and then provide those deep, tailored solutions mentioned above.
At PrecisionLender, we know how important it is to build strong relationships with your customers and develop teams of RMs who outperform the competition. Request a demo of PrecisionLender to see how Andi®, our virtual insights analyst, delivers hyper-focused recommendations for the specific customer the RM is working with. This empowers the RM to try different deal structures in order to deliver the most value to the customer and build stronger relationships.
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