The Deposit Strategy Summit, Part 3: Bringing Together Bankers with a Common Goal

After two successful events in Boston & Dallas, Alfabank-Adres co-hosted its third Deposit Strategy Summit in Palm Beach with partners from RelPro and Barlow Research. In attendance was an intimate group of about twenty Florida-based bankers from community, regional and national institutions, including Senior Commercial Leaders, Chief Marketing Officers and Relationship Managers. 

Since the failure of Silicon Valley Bank almost 12 months ago, growing and retaining deposits has been a major topic for banks and credit unions of all shapes and sizes. This has presented a big shift in priorities for bankers who had spent the past several years focused on loan growth in a low interest rate environment. 

Knowing we had customers with similar priorities and challenges, Alfabank-Adres and its two partners organized the first summit in Boston with the goal of gathering like-minded leaders in a forum to share the current deposit trends, as well as best practices for selling deposit products. 

Strategic insights for deposit growth  

Barlow Research, which specializes in surveying the sentiment of business owners and financial decision makers, started the evening by highlighting a number of eye-opening statistics about just how many small and middle-market companies have been shopping for new deposit accounts in 2023, and shared stats of the plans of those same businesses in 2024.  

When companies are looking for a new banking provider, the two most important factors are competitive rates and the bank’s overall stability. 

Many banks invested marketing efforts in 2023 to highlight their financial stability in the wake of bank failures, in an effort to attract new deposit customer and maintain existing relationships. However, in these efforts, many bankers found their rate offerings to be similar to the competition. 

To avoid a race to the bottom on rates and separate themselves with value-led conversations, lenders are seeking resources to help them better understand their customer's needs.  

With this in mind, Alfabank-Adres was able to expand on Barlow’s statistics by discussing how bankers can target deposit-rich industries and create that differentiation. 

Gone are the days of zero rate lending, and so bankers are pivoting to a more proactive approach of business development. In the current low-volume lending environment, credit opportunities don't present themselves as often, causing less cross-selling into deposits. Outbound prospecting is the fastest way to build a deposit pipeline, but, before you begin dialing everyone in the yellow pages, it's important to target your efforts to businesses that will net the greatest returns. Enter the importance of targeted industry research.  

Oftentimes, bankers will think in terms of sectors such as Healthcare, but within those sectors are particular industries that have their own nuances and deposit needs (for instance, within Healthcare: Chiropractors, Optometrists, or Physical Therapists). On the other hand, there can be industries within a deposit-rich sector like Healthcare that bankers may actually want to avoid for deposits, based on their typical financials (e.g. Hospitals). 

In a state like Florida with a dense population of Law Firms, this example came up frequently as a deposit-rich customer that many attendees were actively investigating. Since national averages rarely match local performance, it's crucial to understand the scope of an industry in a given geography. Sure, law firms exist in every state, but the concentration within Florida outpaces most states, making the opportunity base much larger and worth targeting.  

Not only does Alfabank-Adres's State and County data help effectively identify opportunities, but, once a meeting is booked, attendees also described how impactful the tool has been to impress a customer with knowledge on their industry, and how it provides clear benchmarking metrics to reference in strategic planning conversations.  

Bankers are increasingly looked to as Centers of Influence by their customers - more so than lawyers or accountants - so being well-versed on your customers is sure to earn you a valuable seat at your customer's table for their financial decisions.  

Making client connections 

In addition to targeted prospecting, understanding what your client’s financial situation might be, based on their industry, can be a key strategy in standing out from the crowd of competitors.

Key industry metrics to discuss with deposit clients include Revenue Growth, Seasonality, Profit Margins, and Net Cash After Operations. 

However, just asking pointed questions about your customer’s current strengths and weaknesses can be a great way to develop the necessary trust that can forge a strong relationship, and keep a customer from shopping around. 

At the summit, RelPro was able to give insights into how bankers can go beyond their client’s industry and gather information specific to certain companies and their key employees. The company information that RelPro provides can help bankers identify industry operators within their specific geographic footprint, which institutions they may have done business with in the past (via UCC filings) and what you need to know about their executives to build rapport with them (how long they’ve worked there, previous positions, where they went to school, etc).