Bank Mergers: 10 Top Tips for Professional First Meetings

Everybody is counting on you to deliver.

You’ve never done it before.

You don’t quite know what to expect.

Or, how to prepare.

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Conversations have taken place between the investment bankers and potentially interested parties.

The investment bankers have moved some of the parties from the attention stage to the interest stage.

Now you need to move those “interested” into the desire stage.

It’s time for one-on-one meetings.

That may mean it’s time for a first impression.

That may sound daunting.

It is.

Now you have an opportunity for a preview of what that meeting is like.

And I am going to walk you through it so you can handle it like a pro.

The one-on-one meetings could be formal or informal.

They could happen at a conference over lunch, or dinner, or drinks.

They could even take place during or between conference sessions.

My preference was to keep the meetings batched, if possible.

What I mean by batched is much the same fashion I would make sales calls.

Two or three a day was my preference for sales calls.

It allowed for more efficient and productive meetings.

Personally, I was indifferent as to whether the meetings were formal or informal as I am comfortable in both settings.

You may have a preference.

Your investment banker will want to sit in on the meetings too, so having them batched together accommodates travel schedules as well.

The reason they want to sit in on them is not to guide your conversation, but rather to continue learning your history and thought process so they can answer questions from buyers more efficiently further along in the process.

It is also very valuable to debrief with your investment banker following the meeting for observations.

There are 10 top tips I would pass along to help your meetings go well. This newsletter will focus on the first one alone, next week we’ll go through the other nine.

Tip #1 – Meeting Logistics & Framework

It is best to begin with an orientation of the meeting.

It allows you to get your bearings and an overall picture in your mind of what it’s like.

The initial meeting generally lasts about an hour but could be as long as two hours.

The time generally goes by very quickly and follows a format much like this:

Introductions & Pleasantries

Your investment banker will take the lead if the parties aren’t familiar with one another.

If you and the potential buyer are familiar with one another, the pleasantries likely begin immediately and at some comfortable point in the conversation. Your investment banker will then move on to the meeting agenda.

Meeting Agenda

Your investment banker will take the lead, making sure there is orderly progress to the meeting and will step in occasionally to gently guide the conversation, keeping track of time.

The investment banker will ask if there is any backend time pressure to be concerned about.

Knowing about this in advance of the meeting is helpful in determining how quickly to hit on important message points.

Ideally, there is no time pressure, but occasionally there is.

This is helpful to establish up front because if the potential buyer says they have time pressure, then later says “No, keep going, I will adjust my schedule” you have a clear indication that interest is being established.

If they say they have no backend time pressure, then into the meeting they suddenly remember they have an upcoming meeting they had forgotten, that is another cue, only this time it’s a cue that they are not interested.

Your investment banker will lead off with how the meeting came about.

As an example, “The board has engaged us to review the bank’s strategic options and then report back to them with what we find. At this point, they are not certain what path this may take, but selling could be a choice. We know you (the buyer), have a great deal of respect for what you have built, and thought there might be a benefit to introducing the two parties to see where it might go.”

From there, the banker may ask you to provide some background on the bank to get things started:

Background on the Bank and Holding Company (if applicable):

Brief History:

• How the bank got started
• Total asset size
• Geographic footprint
• Area(s) of focus (e.g., consumer, commercial, commercial real estate, agriculture, or residential construction and mortgage lending)
• Culture
• Strengths
• Talent
• Shareholder base (in general, e.g., family-owned, widely held, closely held, possibly mention concentrations without going into specific detail)
• More recent history or trends

There likely will be a transition to your background after discussing the bank.

Your Background:

Keep in mind the bank is the star of the show.

It’s okay to highlight your career, but my advice is to make sure it doesn’t sound like you’re interviewing for a job (i.e., a balance of quiet confidence and being friendly).

Sprinkle in your authority throughout the meeting.

(The key word is sprinkle).

You don’t want this to appear as if the bank’s value is dependent on you.

That may make you feel good but will bring the value of the bank down.

Highlight the talent around you helping you to be successful, give them credit.

Balance is the key, don’t go overboard or oversell here either.

That can appear disingenuous.

This likely will raise the question of whether your team will be willing to stay if the bank is bought. Be prepared for this question.

No one truly knows the answer to that question, but the question will come up.

They are looking for what reaction they will get.

They are looking for hedging, “Well, that depends on…”.

They are looking for any potential problems.

They are looking for clues as to how you might present the sale to your employees.

As an opportunity? Or something less than that?

There is an emotional trigger that you will have when somebody is asking if the employees you recruited, hired, and developed will like their place better.

It hits a competitive nerve in you.

Your reflexes kick in.

It stings.

I get it.

But remember to resist those ingrained competitive instincts, this could be a great opportunity for your employees if it comes to fruition.

Your answer may be something along the lines of, “If the conversations we are having led to an eventual sale, our people would understand that a larger organization, with more scale, is a great opportunity to continue to build their skills and take their careers even further.”

Answer questions as they come up throughout the conversation.

An interactive conversation or just quiet, intense listening on behalf of the other party could be great signs they are interested.

Conversely, watch for a lot of body movement and shifting in their chair.

It could be a sign you’re droning on about a topic and need to shift to another topic.

Your investment banker may be watching for this too, to help guide a transition the conversation to another topic.

Their Background

The investment banker will likely move on to the next part of the agenda, asking the potential acquirer if they would take some time to describe their background, history, culture, and any additional thoughts they would like to highlight.

Ask questions during this part of the conversation that fit with the conversation.

In other words, stay on topic or go off topic but stay at the level of the conversation.

If it’s a 40,000-foot overview, stay at that level or perhaps go down a level or two (30,000 feet or 20,000 feet) but avoid going too detailed (down a rabbit hole or asking them to reveal strategies they wouldn’t to a competitor).

Something like, “What’s your strategy for building out your treasury management function?” Or “Who is your number one rainmaker on the commercial side of things?”

In general, stay away from things you would feel uncomfortable saying to the competition. Balance sharing information, while remembering you could be talking to the competition.

Stay engaged, again with a balance of quiet confidence and being friendly.

Following those discussions, the investment banker may ask both sides if there are any other questions.

Following that, the investment banker may inquire a bit further about the buyer’s interest level if they pick up on something in the meeting.

Or may ask about deal criteria the buyer has previously used to gauge the buyer’s interest.

An answer where the buyer is “leaning in” talking with energy about possible deal structure could be interpreted by a savvy investment banker as a sign of interest in your deal.

This isn’t an exhaustive review of all that you could cover in these meetings, but it’s close.

Action plan:

• Think through in your mind how you would introduce the bank to a possible buyer. Better yet, role play it in your own solitude to test it out and hear how it sounds.
• Imagine yourself in an environment where you are having a conversation like this with another banker you are familiar with.
• Imagine yourself in an environment where you are having a conversation like this with a banker, you’re not familiar with.
• It seems like it should be relatively easy given your background and experience, don’t rely on that confidence alone, practice will make you better.

Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

There are zero hacks or tricks in this newsletter. Just proven tactics that help you choose the right path for your bank.

Your path will:

• Inform your strategic plan.
• Guide your annual business plan and budget.
• Clarify priorities.
• Define your message so it can be communicated with confidence.

This is how savvy bankers navigate.

They build smart and valuable banks and choose the best time to sell – serving the needs of the shareholders and the board.

I hope you found this short lesson helpful.

What are your thoughts?

I’ll see you next week.