Improving your bank's marketing committee meetings: tips from an ABA conference presenter.

• Position: ABA Resources

Consider this scenario: That time of the month is rolling around again and you need to prepare for your bank's monthly marketing committee meeting. What will you discuss? What plans need to be reviewed? You haven't been thinking about future marketing activities, you have been too busy preparing for the bank's upcoming open house celebration. Your committee members haven't focused on marketing either: They have been working hard to keep up with new loan requests, senior's club events and branch management activities.

Bank marketers who face a similar situation may wonder if it is possible to have an effective marketing committee meeting under such conditions, notes Tom Hershberger of Cross Financial Group, Lincoln, Neb. The answer is yes! 'You just have to apply a few practical guidelines to improve your meeting success," says Hershberger, who will present a program entitled "Money-Saving, Money-Making Marketing Ideas" at the September ABA Bank Marketing Conference in Miami.

Hershberger offers the following six tips on conducting marketing committee meetings:

1. Plan ahead.

   Planning is the most important ingredient Begin with the end in mind. Hopefully you have developed an annual marketing plan that includes a calendar of events for the year. A simple, easy-to-read outline of significant events and promotions the bank intends to implement With the master calendar in place, your marketing committee can focus on more specific activities and communications to support your ongoing sales and marketing activities.

2. Identify your purpose and objectives.

   Improvement begins by identifying your meeting's purpose. Do you plan to share information, generate ideas, narrow a list of options or make decisions? Make sure that the committee members understand what you hope to accomplish before the meeting begins.

   Provide additional clarity for the meeting by setting specific objectives. Establishing meeting objectives provides direction for content and helps keep discussions focused on critical topics. Objectives should be set and communicated to the committee members prior to the meeting. If your committee members don't have a clear meeting direction, they will make up one on their own during the meeting.

   Use action words to help define the meeting objectives. Begin objectives with words like

   Decide.

   * Create.

   * Develop.

   * Determine.

   This sets the tone and direction for committee dialogues. Action words also make it easier to determine if the committee...