To help identify specific use cases where real-time payments could make sense, Barlow presented four scenarios to small businesses and asked them to indicate their likelihood of using real-time payments in each of these scenarios. As seen below, the most compelling use case among small businesses was to use real-time payments to receive high-dollar value payments from customers without incurring credit card fees, which garnered a 60% very likely to use score. The second most likely scenario was the ability to transfer money between accounts at different financial institutions in real-time with a 50% very likely to use rating among small businesses. The ability to pay suppliers or pay employees in real-time were not as desirable, with only 36% and 17% very likely to use, respectively.

Your bank’s internal product profitability model can help you see the value of this undertaking from a net interest income and fee income perspective.

It Takes the Whole Team to Deliver

RMs are most effective when they can leverage the talents of the whole team: all Product Partners, Credit Risk Management, Marketing/Sales Enablement and Sales Leaders.

For Relationship Managers:

1. Become a trusted advisor.
2. Be knowledgeable about the outlook for your company’s industry, the challenges and opportunities it faces, and insights into how your bank’s solutions solve specific business problems.
3. Conduct efficient call prep and follow-up, leverage resources to improve productivity and importantly, be responsive to client questions and servicing needs. Business owners say that they want their Relationship Manager to be a proactive, capable, and competent partner who understands their business needs. They are looking for someone who can remove the red tape and share ideas, such as how to save money or increase the interest on their funds.

For Sales Leaders:

1. Identify and address obstacles to solving clients’ business problems and delivering top-notch customer service.
2. Dedicate time to helping your team with effective pre-call planning and visiting clients to help drive performance.
3. Teach, coach, and share what is working/not working up, down and across the organization. Be sure to celebrate successes!

For Marketing/Sales Enablement: provide timely and relevant industry-specific insights which you may obtain from vendors or trade associations, incorporate your bank economist economic forecast, and share survey information on the outlook/expectations for middle market companies. RMs can use this to have more meaningful conversations with middle market decision-makers. Create website content for middle market industries and their business challenges and opportunities. Use emails/direct mail to drive visits to this content, and measure the opens, clicks, and time spent on specific messages to assess interest and relevancy. Provide leads to the RMs from this effort and track outcomes.

For Product Partners: support RMs with products designed to achieve client expectations, provide resources that assist RMs with call prep and joint calling to present the right solutions, provide customer-friendly implementation and white glove service. Regularly converse with the RMs to stay updated on competitor actions across your geography.

For Credit Risk Management: educate RMs on deal risks and how a request fits within the organization’s risk appetite. Offer viable solutions and deliver timely credit decisions.

Create and Implement a DRIP Strategy

A DRIP Strategy is a constant flow of communication that Differentiates your organization and the individual sender, Reinforces your commitment to the recipient’s success, Informs the audience of a particular challenge or opportunity, and Persuades them to respond and request information or a meeting. While often used for prospecting purposes, it’s a great way to stay in front of your clients and showcase your capabilities. Develop relevant and meaningful content and delivery options, including emails and printed materials that an RM can hand deliver, social media scripting and personally signed direct mail pieces. A successful DRIP strategy entails:

1. Centralized creation to achieve consistent messaging
2. A test and learn mindset – starting small and building on success
3. Tracking and measuring execution (emails, visits, responses, product sales)
4. Gathering feedback for future changes.

Be on the lookout for potential obstacles, such as competing priorities, and develop mitigation plans. Share successes broadly and recognize top performance. Based on feedback, implement changes to improve the content and delivery.

Key Takeaways to Convert Parked Deposits to Full Relationships

1. The time is now to act and convert these new accounts into fully functional relationships. According to new data from Barlow Research, new business depositors (under two years) report lower overall satisfaction vs. established depositors of 5 years or more at 58% vs. 63% and lower Net Promoter Scores at 40 vs. 45. It’s time to act and close that gap.
2. Get every role that supports your commercial client base on board and aligned with the strategy
3. Execute a thoughtful, nimble DRIP marketing strategy, measure results, modify and repeat