Putting the Bite Back into Regional Staff

When I began my banking career many seasons ago, there was no better job to have than Regional President (or Regional Manager, or Area President, or State President…whatever your flavor is). These were the people who heavily influenced (or made) policy and decisions. They set goals, and managed sales, and pointed the direction that new product design had to go. These independent, opinionated leaders managed and guarded their people and branches with a passion, and God help any schmuck in administration who tried to make a policy or procedure change without their approval. In a way, they were the ultimate ombudsmen for customers.

Somehow, in the centralization fever of the ’80s and ’90s, these positions were weakened. Power and authority moved to administration. Yes, it did. Policies were made and announced from there. These regional people became more administrative in focus and began executing plans rather than influencing them. Lending authority for many of them was eliminated or decreased. Too often, this position became the parking place for senior executives from acquired banks that came with the purchase and had to ride out a few final years in peace and obscurity. (And hey, no indignant gasps. We all know this happened.)

Well, I think we need our old regional people back. Badly. Your branches could use them about now.

Now that the Internet is being treated with the right perspective (and the dot com banks are folding like $99 suits), branches are back at the center of thinking and strategic planning – the girl at the prom everybody wants to dance with:

• Deposit growth is more important than ever, and CEOs are demanding strong net deposit growth without the CD sale.
• Small business product managers center their plans on branches.
• Mortgage origination managers have developed incentive plans for loan referrals.
• Cash management salespeople use them for fulfillment.
• Marketing and sales managers are deploying new, better sales programs for them.
• Securities subsidiaries are planning to give them Series 6 licenses.
• Insurance subs are asking for referrals.
• The Trust group wants high net worth customers sent over.
• Retail is giving them bigger consumer loan and fee income goals.
• Internet banking product managers are relying on them for increased usage.
• The big CRM initiative is lurking just around the corner.

You know, I think about branches in this environment and I keep getting this vision of someone trying to put his mouth around a fire hydrant and drink all the water.

Now, don’t get me wrong. All of these initiatives are very valid. And branches do need to increase their contribution to the bottom line. But somebody has to act as the traffic cop. And the head of Retail Banking or Branch Administration can’t do it alone.

We need our strong regional managers and staff back. And here’s what they need to do:

1. They need to take the lead on process design. There has to be some consistency in the design of customer delivery/fulfillment processes and systems. The regional staff is the group with its ear to the ground and the customer most in mind. Why wouldn’t they lead the process?
2. They need to manage administration as much as they are managed by it. By that I mean that they need to constantly feed back what’s working and what isn’t (products, process, policy), and they have to be pains until things that aren’t working get corrected. And fair is fair – they also have to be held accountable for fixing performance problems on their end, too. (By the way, this is sometimes going to cause jaws to tighten and faces to redden.)
3. They must point the trainers to where they can add the most value. The right training focus, particularly product training, can eliminate an awful lot of the research and correction work being done now.
4. They must be more integral in developing branch job descriptions and hiring the right people – the authority and the accountability. It’s amazing to me how many people are still hired by HR.
5. They need to have a big say in the design of incentive plans. CSRs making $25K with a 10% upside ain’t going to do it anymore, folks.
6. They need loan authority. So do the branch managers. If you took it away or reduced it, give it back. I was in branches for 10 years, and the first thing I ever learned about selling deposits is that you need loan authority to do it successfully. This hasn’t changed.
7. They need the authority to spend money. See above.

We need our strong regional managers and staff back because somebody has to get up every morning and think about how all these product and sales initiatives affect customers and branch staff. And they need to argue that point of view every day, even if they are occasionally a bit too one-sided.

Strong field leaders are a sign of any good sales organization. And they make things uncomfortable… and they make thing messy… but success usually is messy, isn’t it?

We need our strong regional managers and staff back.
–tr

BANKING OFFICES BY TYPE OF BANK, 1990-2000
	1990	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
All banking offices	94,127	93,914	94,980	95,793	97,002	96,339
Commercial banks	62,346	66,768	68,897	70,150	71,664	71,784
—Number of banks	12,329	9,510	9,124	8,756	8,563	8,297
—Number of branches	50,017	57,258	59,773	61,394	63,101	63,487
Savings institutions	21,621	15,754	14,845	14,648	14,710	14,239
—Number of banks	2,815	1,926	1,780	1,689	1,640	1,590
—Number of branches	18,806	13,828	13,065	12,959	13,070	12,649
Credit unions	10,160	11,392	11,238	10,995	10,628	10,316
Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; National Credit Union Administration.