Non-Conformity or Conformity – Creating and Monetizing Assets

Non-Conformity or Conformity – Creating and Monetizing Assets

We’ve presented several significant benefits that are part of the RiskCALM₄ Solution in previous papers: integrated risk management, expanding your base, and unique and impactful customer service.  Probably the most difficult aspect of the RiskCALM₄ Solution to convey is the creating and monetizing of assets and accesses. To most financial institutions, assets are in the form of loans and their customers are the most likely vehicle to acquiring more loans.  That is the normal thought process with some variations.  Looking at it slightly different, the easiest way to loans would be through managing the buying cycles of customers and non-customers.  So, let’s put on our non-conforming hat and put aside conformity for a bit.

Conforming to the norm will ensnare your creative thoughts and the hopes of what could fade into the limitations of your reality.  The inability to have your creative thoughts liberate you from that which calls you into conformity is sometimes due to the comfort of conformity.  This battle between your creative thoughts and conforming to the norm creates antithetical thoughts, polarized and inconsequential.  As the 35^th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” Creative thoughts, ensnared by the limitations of opportunity or the safety of conformity, eventually lead to inactivity and growth ceases to be an option.

Creating and monetizing assets is a creative non-conforming way of thinking utilizing undeveloped assets to create more assets and more monetizing options.  Think about the undeveloped assets within every financial institution — it’s the customers’ buying cycles.  Most financial institutions don’t think of buying cycles as something known or tangible, but it is buying cycles that promote opportunities.  When a customer is in a buying cycle, there’s an opportunity to serve and in that service, an opportunity to monetize, which is what financial institutions do or should do.

Why buying cycles and not selling cycles?  It is an interesting dichotomy in our consumer culture that while we typically enjoy buying things, we typically dislike being sold things.  An example can be found in buying a new car.  Imagine your excitement when you decide it’s time to buy a new car and start test-driving your options.  Now imagine your irritation as the car salesman approaches and starts his sales pitch.  When you are “buying,” it’s a pleasure.  When you are being “sold to,” it’s a hassle.

On the other side, however, is the buying cycle, the process a buyer goes through in identifying a purchase need, investigating options to meet the need, and making a purchase (or not).  Buying cycles are personal — unfolding mostly in the mind of the buyer — and vary greatly depending on what individual need is being met by what purchase.

• Selling Cycles tend to put buyers and sellers into adversarial roles, while Buying Cycles tend to put buyers and sellers into partnership
• Selling Cycles tend to make buyers and sellers withhold information, Buying Cycles tend to make buyers and sellers share
• Selling Cycles tend to produce a single transaction (sale), Buying Cycles tend to produce multiple transactions (sales).

How you deal with the buying cycle process of a customer is dependent upon when your involvement begins.  If you’re betting on reality, your chances of being involved in your customers’ buying cycles are slim, especially in this age of ecommerce.  If you are managing the buying cycle, your chances of involvement are great.  There are so many benefits in the form of opportunities in being involved with someone’s buying cycle.  Imagine if you were involved in assisting your customer during every buying cycle through the point in time of a buying decision.  The loyalty and trust being developed during the buying experience by your customer will naturally lead to the involvement of your financial assistance.  All you need to break the bonds of conformity and to free your organization from the enemy of growth is the opportunity to be creative.  The RiskCALM₄ Solution is the opportunity to be creative.

So, what’s the value of buying cycles to financial institutions?  Answer: The next blog post.