Tips from a banker on selling IT to a $2.8 billion bank


Recently, I saw Barbara Perino, senior vice president of operations and technology for The Washington Trust Company address a room full of bank vendors. While other speakers painted a gloomy picture of the industry, she provided insights on how vendors should approach her and the bank’s spending priorities in technology and related services in 2009.

About Washington Trust:
· Founded in 1800
· Based in Westerly, Rhode Island
· 17 branches
· Four wealth management offices
· $2.8 billion in assets (as of September 30, 2008)
· Earnings before taxes = 40% from retail, 34% from business banking and 26% from wealth management
· Washington Trust Wealth Management (a division of the bank) has approximately $4 billion in assets under administration

Perino aligns technology spending with the bank’s strategic goals, only considering projects and/or vendors who can demonstrate either a positive ROI or show an ability to mitigate risks and threats to Washington Trust. She said that her 2009 spending priorities will be “highly-focused,” likely on electronic document management, mobile banking, business intelligence for client retention, wealth management systems and compliance/security.

Tips for selling to her:
· Know the bank’s budgeting cycle
· Convince them of the value – is there a direct impact on the bottom line?
· Does it fill a void for customers or improve the customer experience?
· Will it give the bank a competitive edge?
· Will it mitigate risk or eliminate a single point of failure?

Best practices:
· Incent for a longer contract (don’t wait until the contract is up, do it early)
· Explain what is included in the annual maintenance fee (note: she does not like to pay for the first year maintenance fee).
· Align your technology or service to the bank’s existing strategic partners
· Demonstrate or prove that the technology integrates with other systems
· Provide testimonials/case studies
· Provide referrals of similar-sized financial institutions
· Provide white papers

Thank you Barbara for your time and perspective.

Popular posts from this blog

Real Estate Technology News (RETN) folds

If you market technology or related services to the mortgage or real estate market, you should note that there is one less news outlet. News from October Research -- Real Estate Technology News folded into Title Report and Valuation Review this month As of Jan. 1, the online content for Real Estate Technology News is being integrated into several of our other premier publications. Building on the wealth of stories written over the past seven years, the October Research editorial staff will continue to provide critical technology news and analysis for each of our markets. We encourage you to visit our other publication Web sites to access our First in Class coverage of the real estate and settlement services industries: Valuation Review (www.valuationreview.com) Title Report (www.thetitlereport.com)
Read more

Gut-wrenching conversations about sales (or lack there of)

I have had some gut-wrenching conversations with business owners about revenue, or lack there of. People make operational decisions based on achieving a certain level of sales. When they don’t materialize, tough decisions lay ahead. The first reaction is to cut expenses – not a bad choice if you know you are overspending in some areas or have under-performers on the staff. Unfortunately, companies rarely cut expenses enough to achieve prosperity. Good revenue has covered up a lot of mistakes. The second reaction might be to redirect resources or even spend more. So if you are lucky enough to work for a company that decides to spend more to increase sales, what do you do? Do you: 1. Implement a highly targeted direct marketing program? 2. Increase advertising (or start)? 3. Hire a new sales person? 4. Hire a public relations firm or add a staff PR person? 5. Refresh the company’s Web site? 6. Conduct market research? 7. Invest in product development? 8. Create a podcast series wi...
Read more

YouTube experiment -- inserting code

I'm testing out the code provided from YouTube for the above video. If you are interested, the video was made using the slideshow feature in iPhoto...then converting it to .mov file. If this works like I hope, I'll be sharing more information with my customers. As background, the Innisbrook Group is a peer network of agency owners (PR and advertising), which meets twice a year. We discuss new business efforts, operational issues, client retention and more. As seen in the video, we also tend to eat well, drink wine and enjoy our time together. If you have questions about the YouTube experiment or Innisbrook, don't hesitate to contact me directly. Scott
Read more