Virtually every bank, almost regardless of size, has as one of its strategic goals to develop, and acquire, more good-quality business and commercial loans. They're lucrative for the bank, and extremely helpful to the growing business that needs funding.
Yet, curiously, almost everyone struggles to meet the goal of acquiring these business loans. It’s partly because every bank is gunning for pretty much the same clients. And, it’s partly because traditional business development practices for business banking – cultivating centers of influence and cold-calling – tend to be unpredictable and largely hit or miss.
Consistently falling short of this target tends to be a chronic headache for the typical bank CMO.
Research shows that 91% - better than nine out of ten – potential buyers won't even respond to unsolicited contact. And, more than seven of ten – 71% - say that cold calls are bothersome, according to NoMoreColdCalling.org. Stunning statistics, although not terribly surprising when you think about it. After all, how do you react to calls from strangers, especially those offering services you don't have an explicit need for?
Of course, the typical next step in the cold-calling process is to leave a voicemail. Except, according to Inc.com fewer people ever retrieve those messages. In fact, the service has become so unpopular that some Fortune 100 companies, Coca-Cola for example, have actually discontinued voicemail services at their corporate headquarters, Bloomberg.com reports.
Another factor making cold calling an unproductive approach, according to Corporate Executive Board data as reported by Brian Halligan, is thanks to ubiquitous online search, almost 60% of a prospect’s information gathering is typically complete before the prospect ever speaks to a single relationship manager! Plus, significant pre-existing opinions and beliefs are formed about you and your company before you even make the first contact.
So, as long as business loan lead generation continues to be mostly hit or miss, the challenge of reaching revenue and growth goals will continue.
And when revenue goals are missed, unpleasant downstream issues can emerge, such as not having adequate funding for other initiatives. There can be other consequences as well. It tends to be a bit of a vicious cycle. If only there were an effective pain reliever for this chronic headache. Well, in a sense, there is.
The problem in general with traditional outbound marketing is there’s no easy and reliable to measure or reliably quantify the return on your investment.
How well does it work? Well according to Hubspot, State of Inbound, 2015, companies are three times more likely to realize higher ROI on inbound marketing campaigns compared to traditional older-style outbound marketing campaigns. As far as your banking business development marketing bottom line, it just makes sense.
Ready to dig in further on how inbound marketing can really fix the persistent headache of developing business loan leads? Download the ROI calculator, plug in your own numbers, and see first-hand how inbound marketing can start growing your business lending portfolio. Enjoy!