People cross their arms for all sorts of reasons. These can include: a feeling of comfort; habit; discomfort; a sign of authority; insecurity; anger; because they are uncomfortable with their appearance or reserved; or because they are trying to hide something spilled on their shirt. There are lots of reasons for sure, but one interesting fact that surfaces from research is that about 70% of people will cross their left arm over their right one (although no one is too sure just why). So, if you are trying to figure out why someone you are talking to has folded their arms across their chest, consider the context first and then roll through the options we have provided above to help narrow the alternatives into the one or two that make the most sense.
We put a lot of thought and analysis into the community banking world, because that is where our business and passion are focused. After reading an article on the baby boomer generation recently, we got thinking about the impact to community banks. The article pointed out that baby boomers appear to be a charitable bunch indeed.
A survey of baby boomers was conducted by U.S. Trust and it uncovered that about 55% felt it was important to leave a financial inheritance to their children or heirs. That compares to about 75% of those with over $3mm of investable assets. Overall, 75% of baby boomers said they felt a responsibility to be philanthropic vs. 67% of older respondents and 53% of the younger generation. This data indicates the boomer generation is about 2x as likely to give money to charitable causes than to let it go to their children. For community bankers with baby boomers as customers on both deposits and loans, this is something to understand because it can be impactful to your business in the years to come.
To get ahead of this, one suggestion we have is to try to keep the money inside the bank. To do that, you might want to offer targeted savings accounts for specific charitable causes. You can assist the customer to automatically move monies over to the accounts of identified charities on specific dates or when certain thresholds are met, for instance. This can also help you identify the nonprofit charitable organizations your customers most want to help so you can target them as customers yourself. Getting the nonprofit to open an account at your bank to assist this transfer is in their interest and in yours, since such accounts can be quite profitable as well.
Next, since you now know Junior won’t be getting everything, you can split your marketing time between the children of your baby boomer customers and the nonprofit charities they may wish to support. Perhaps suggesting they divide their money between these two groups (in targeted accounts or otherwise), could make sense to your customer and give you a better idea of what they are planning. That will give you more opportunity to cross-sell, as you impress upon Junior and the charity the value of having a relationship with your community bank. It could help you capture these new relationships by leveraging existing ones.
These are challenging times, but hopefully our subject this morning not only gets you thinking about your customers and their habits, but also moves you to develop a plan of attack to retain their deposits and loans. People are living longer and studies show baby boomers aren't yet interested in quitting their jobs, so you have time. Acting now, though, can help ensure you retain more of their wealth within your four walls than your competition can capture from down the street. Good luck and to increase your odds for success today, be sure to uncross your arms and smile broadly when you approach your customers.