Everywhere you look, the internet is changing the way businesses do business. The record stores have long since closed their doors; most movie rental stores, like Blockbuster, have gone or are going out of business; and now book stores like Borders are taking a major hit. At first glance, it might seem that people are no longer listening to music, renting movies, or … [Read more...]
Don’t worry about training your staff and having them leave – worry about not training them and having them stay
I’ve written before about the need for financial institutions to train their sales reps. The reason is this: most banks and credit unions have never had to worry about selling anything. They opened a branch and people just walked in and opened an account. But as we all know, those days are over. Today, even people who have bank accounts are starting to use PayPal or … [Read more...]
Companies find fertile ways to make loans, while businesses find new financing
In this new era of banking, where real estate loans are often frowned-upon by regulators, niche markets are popping-up fast. Instead of loaning money for new buildings, financial companies are even lending money for new babies. “Fertility Finance” companies are partnering with doctors to make loans for in vitro fertilization, fertility treatments and egg harvesting. In … [Read more...]
And The Mobile Banking Winner Is…Google Wallet?
There is a great article in the latest edition of FastCompany.com titled Mobile Melee. It describes the companies and industries that are fighting it out to turn smart phones into “wallets” and who could ultimately control the multi-trillion dollar U.S. payments industry. The interesting thing about the article is that it predicts that banks will be the first ones out of … [Read more...]
What’s closing bank branches faster than the FDIC?
If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times: mobile banking is going to change the banking industry. Sure, it won’t be overnight. But from all of the research I’ve seen, it won’t take long. I recently spoke at a Jack Henry Banking Educational Conference, where I held up my iphone and asked everyone what it was. As you can image, they all answered, “a phone.” I … [Read more...]