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Wondering when to sell your bank?
It's the question every bank CEO eventually faces.
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The best advice I know comes from NYU Finance professor Aswath Damodaran and his famous story about lemmings.
This simple story perfectly captures why so many bank sales happen at exactly the wrong time.
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Your bank has untapped growth potential locked inside it right now.
Potential that you can see clearly but haven't been able to fully capture due to your current size constraints.
Want to maximize your bank's value in a potential sale?
Start by thinking beyond your current limitations.
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The...
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What if I told you that thinking like a buyer is the key to getting the best price for your bank?
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Here's a powerful exercise that changed how we saw our own bank's value:
Reverse engineering the perfect acquisition.
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The Magic Wand Exercise
Imagine you have a magic wand that lets you buy...
Every bank sale is unique, just like the bank itself and the leaders who built it.
But I've found that successful bank sales follow a pattern.
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This pattern matches what author Bo Burlingham describes in his book "Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top."
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Burlingham f...
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Here's a simple truth:
You only sell your bank once, but you need to build its value every day.
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Selling a bank isn't like selling a house.
You can't just add a fresh coat of paint and expect top dollar (see The Savvy Banker 064 – "Community Bank Hiring Success: 5 Strategic Steps That Maximi...
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"You only sell your bank once."
I hear CEOs say this when they put off preparing for a sale.
But the truth is simple: While you sell just once, you need to build value every day.
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Early in my career, investment bankers taught me something important:
The best bank sales happen because of sma...
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Let me share a counterintuitive truth about bank leadership:
Your most important job as CEO is to make yourself replaceable.
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I've seen too many community bank leaders who believe their personal involvement in every decision is the path to success.
They're wrong.
And if you're planning a po...
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What separates successful bank sales from disappointments?
It's not market timing.
It's not luck.
And it's certainly not the latest M&A trend.
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It's preparation.
When you're prepared, two things happen: your decisions become more confident, and the entire process seems to "slow down" – all...
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The deal closed.
There are a whole host of emotions.
How do you celebrate?
And, with whom?
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Management Team
It’s important to celebrate this milestone with your team and to affirm their transformation into the value-driven leaders they have become.
Sadly, many leaders are so competitive w...
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The deal closed.
The bank you were CEO of, and the holding company (if applicable) no longer exist.
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The duties you had related to the distribution of the merger consideration will remain until they have been fully disbursed.
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Employees and customers begin to look beyond your authority to ...
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In addition to the organic customer calling that has taken place since the announcement, you will have a customer calling blitz as well.
That is a concentrated effort to go to the customer’s place of business for a face- to-face meeting.
The goal of the calling blitz is to make certain you can ...
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The deal has closed, the signs have changed, and as you can imagine, the shareholders are interested in when they receive the merger consideration.
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When selling a home, the documents get signed and the keys are exchanged for the sales proceeds.
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This transaction isn’t that simple, so commu...