Best Practices for Cohort Companies

As a participant in ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator, your company receives brand recognition, awareness, promotional, and exhibiting opportunities only available to ICBA Corporate Members and Preferred Service Providers.

Before the program

  • Get organized! Do as much research as possible before each visit, prepare a template for following up, and execute to maximize each opportunity.

  • Prioritize – make time to participate fully in the Accelerator program.

  • Understand before seeking to be understood - Community bankers want to do business with people they know and trust. Use the time you get via this program to not only scale your revenues, but also to refine your product market fit.

During the program

  • Know your audience. Community bankers care about their communities. You will develop a better rapport with bankers if you sincerely show that you care about their communities as well. Familiarize yourself with community banking business and data showing that they are the backbone of small and medium sized businesses.

  • Soft sell – Meetings with bankers provide an opportunity to build a relationship, showcase your product, and potentially set the stage for a follow-up call. Avoid hard sell tactics during these introductory meetings.

  • Tell your story - Positioning is important. Understand the pain points of your audience and respond appropriately by framing your solutions to address those pain points.

  • Listen and take notes - You get a ton of feedback from this process. If you notice patterns in feedback from bankers, adapt your services to incorporate their comments and recommendations.

  • Juice = Squeeze – Your results will reflect the effort that you put in. The Accelerator program will provide opportunity to refine your marketing messages and pitch to community bankers, but you need to put in the work to reflect on feedback and incorporate what you’ve learned while presenting.

  • Be responsive – To the Accelerator team, to the bankers and other industry players.

  • Be on time – 30 minutes, and 10 weeks, isn’t a lot of time.

After the program

  • Follow up!

  • Send updates! We’ll ask for quarterly reporting to keep up to date on your progress after the initial 10 weeks. Add us to your email list for investor/stakeholder updates.

  • Submit case studies, take advantage of the benefits from your complimentary Fintech Membership to ICBA, participate in related events, including ICBA LIVE and state association conferences. Laura Norrell, Director of Services, will be your primary contact for connections within ICBA and the community banking industry.

  • Let us know how we can support you.