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No thanks
The problem I find with gaining referrals from bankers is.......having to form relationships with bankers.
Now my clients, on the other hand, are lovely people and referrals from them are no problem.
Referrals from bankers
This piece of research blows the lid on a rich source of referrals for accountants - banking professionals. Think about it. Most bankers run portfolios of 50-500 business customers. At any one time, 10-20% of those will be either unhappy with or under-serviced by their current accountant. Given that most accountants are clueless about building relationships with bankers, don't you think this might represent a competitive edge and lucrative lead generation source for you? This document will give you all you need to identify, connect with and leverage the 3-4 banking relationships that will generate significant referral business for you for many years to come! And if you want to know what these bankers are really looking for, contact me!
The report addresses things from both perspectives
The report tells bankers what accountants are looking for and it tells accountants what bankers are looking for.
When I was drafting elements of the commentary I noted that there were few surprises here. I added my own insights to explain some of the feedback from accountants, as did Steve. Rob Brown did the same re the feedback from bankers.
There is a wonderful opportunity here for those accountants who are prepared to invest some time in doing this properly.
The relatively low level of interest that this discussion thread has generated to date (only c500 views in 10 days) suggests that most readers are not interested in even finding out more about this topic. That's a shame - but it is also echoed by many of the respondents to the survey that we conducted.
Mark
850 UK accountants & bankers (or bankers & accountants)
Steve/Mark - Have read the article again and was wondering is that 850 accountants & 850 bankers or 850 in total? If the latter how was the sample split between them?
My experience
Thanks Steve - putting aside my natural aversion to want to approach bankers, my experience over the past 10 years or so is that, unless you are connected with significant business entities, attempting to form a relationship with any banker is doomed to be short term.
This was not always the case. In my early days I did indeed form worthwhile connections with the managers of my local branches and, even though a few could be viewed as young Captain Mainwarings, regular contact in helping out our mutual clients was regarded as the norm and, over a period of time, I got to know which manager might be the better bet for a client and, likewise, they would approach me with new busines with which they felt I was best placed to help.
Such an environment no longer exists, well it doesn't where I operate, and the only person with whom I've had anything similar in recent years is my own manager, who remained in post for 3-4 years.
She was moved on 4-5 years ago and was followed by a series of administrators, most of whom, despite promises, never bothered to meet up. Before she left my original manager told me that the bank's policy was hardening and that they did not want to leave managers (or whatever they are now called) in place for too long for fear of the relationships they might form with customers and their advisors becoming compromised.
This was borne out when, having spent 18 months getting to know her successor, and right in the middle of negotiations for finance of my largest client, he vanished, without warning, promoted to London.
This together with the mutual distrust that arose following the banking crisis (ie the banks seeing SME's as not worth the risk and punters seeing bankers as self serving leeches) has lead, in my mind, to a healthier position of just using banks as a place to keep your funds and organise standing orders and using other sources for financial assistance.
I do realise though that I may be weird but I'm still far happier to get a recommedation from a client than I ever would be from a bank manager.
Thanks Steve
I'm not doubting your survey results and am sure there are ways to improve things (let's face it, with a 7% (sizeable?) starting point the only way is up!) but I'm too long in the tooth and have got too used to my barge pole to want to take a different path.
By the way, how did the bankers view their relationships with accountants?
Thanks Steve
Interesting indeed, and I could put a different slant on what needs to be done but I've now used up my annual allowance in "banker think" time.
Cheers.
horses and water
Steve
Thanks for this research which I find fits with my approach and I'd find the full details useful.
I think the "you can take a horse to the water but can't make it drink" scenario applies in that a number of accountants will not take up the method of attracting new business (and may well have valid reasons for not doing so).
Regards
Paul makes some good points
I have some good realtionships with bankers. Two of my best friends - going back 20 years plus - are either current or retired senior managers. An unrelated banker has referred 8 good quality clients after his mum and dad (!!) signed up with me and said he should get in touch. And via my friends I know just about everyone locally in every branch.
Overall I largely agree with Paul. My referring banker was swiftly promoted and replaced by someone who hasn't got much of a clue and shows no interest in relationship building. Almost anyone you talk to in any bank who has worked there more than 10 years will tell you that local folk have minimal input into lending decisions and so forth.
So for anyone who decides this article is worth following up, my message is:
Whilst you may start out with a scattergun approach, it's likely that 90% or so of your local bank contacts will end up not producing the goods. This is no reflection on you, just the lousy way UK banks are run. In my view, if you can early on identify the 20% of local bank folk who COULD end up delivering, and focus all of your efforts on this crowd, you stand a much better chance of getting just the ONE you need to offer you ten or so decent referalls. This way you'll get a decent payback for the time and effort you've put in.
Well said Mr Mischief
But you missed the ending. So you spend time and effort on the 10 or 20% once you have found them. You get a few referrals. Within 1 to 2 years they move on, so you have to start again. Therefore accountants who used to keep in touch with bankers are less likely too as now the relationship is often too short.