After years (or even decades) in banking, you learn a lot. Reading financials becomes a breeze. You know which questions to ask. You understand what Credit will want to know. You’ve built relationships, worked through economic cycles, and probably learned more from sitting across the table from business owners than any textbook could teach you.
So, do bankers with this type of hard-earned experience really need Industry Intelligence?
I recently hosted a Vertical IQ user panel with four banking professionals whose experience ranged from about 10 years to nearly four decades. What struck me was that none of them treated Vertical IQ as optional or merely a nice-to-have. They leaned into it as an essential complement to their expertise — using it to prepare more efficiently, uncover fresh perspectives, strengthen relationships, and continually sharpen their craft.
As Chris Hermanas, a Simmons Bank commercial healthcare banker with more than 20 years in financial services, put it, Vertical IQ is an opportunity to “level up your game.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Preparation makes experience more powerful
One risk that comes with experience is believing you can walk into almost any meeting and “wing it.” And, frankly, an experienced banker probably can. But that doesn’t mean you should.
Dan Iadevito, a business banking sales manager at Enterprise Bank and Trust with roughly 20 total years in banking, offered one of my favorite analogies from the panel: “I liken using Vertical IQ to brushing your teeth before a date. Can you go on a date without brushing your teeth? Sure, but I don’t recommend doing it.”
His broader point was simple: If you’re already investing valuable time in a client or prospect meeting, why not use every resource available to get the best return on that time?
Preparation doesn’t have to mean spending 30 minutes studying a Vertical IQ Industry Profile, either. Chris suggested that when you’re jumping between meetings, two or three minutes may be enough. Pull up Vertical IQ on your phone and identify one or two relevant questions, a Current Conditions update, or an industry trend worth discussing.
This tip is especially important for experienced bankers. You may know an industry well, but industries change. Risks change. And the questions worth asking change too. Even though Chris specializes in healthcare, he regularly returns to an Industry Profiles’ Call Prep Questions for fresh conversation ideas.
Your experience gives you the foundation. Current Industry Intelligence helps you keep building on it.
Turn Industry Intelligence into better questions
Being prepared isn’t about proving what you know. It’s about using Industry Intelligence to ask better questions and spark more valuable conversations.
Dan shared an example involving a production company. Vertical IQ information indicated that collecting only a portion of payment upfront was typical for the industry, potentially creating cash flow challenges. When Dan raised the topic, the business owner explained that their company actually collected 100 percent upfront.
The fact that Vertical IQ’s Industry Intelligence didn’t align with this particular business wasn’t a miss; it revealed something valuable. The discrepancy helped Dan recognize that the company was outperforming an industry norm while giving him deeper insight into the business.
Industry Intelligence can also strengthen internal communication. Civic Federal Credit Union’s Mark Litton, who has 37 years of banking experience and oversees both sales and credit, described Vertical IQ as a way to help bankers in the field and underwriters “speak the same language.” Industry context allows teams to anticipate questions and explain why a borrower may be performing differently from industry norms.
That shared understanding isn’t about turning bankers into know-it-alls. As I said during the panel, it’s about helping them ask great questions and offer real value. Financial Benchmarks are particularly useful in this regard. Experienced bankers can compare margins, expenses, receivables, payables, inventory days, and working capital with industry peers, then explore why a client’s business differs. Those conversations can uncover operational challenges, potential banking needs, and topics the owner may want to discuss with an accountant or another advisor.
Stay relevant after the meeting
Vertical IQ isn’t just for prospecting; it can also deepen existing relationships. Shauna Kohl, a personal banker with First Security Bank, uses the Industry Profiles’ Current Conditions, News, and Financial Comparisons sections to give her a meaningful reason to stay in touch with business owners.
Her advice: Ask permission first. Tell clients you’d like to occasionally share useful industry information, then be selective about what you send. That transforms routine, CRM-driven outreach into timely conversations with real value.
The same approach can strengthen relationships with centers of influence (COIs). Dan learns which industries his referral partners’ clients operate in and shares relevant updates that could help those accountants or advisors have better conversations of their own.
That’s an important shift in strategy: Don’t network with COIs only because you want referrals. Give them something that makes them more valuable to their clients. Better referrals can become a byproduct of the credibility you’ve built.
Make Vertical IQ part of what you already do
In my role, I frequently hear one practical concern: When am I supposed to find time for this? Our panelists had clear answers.
Mark said that when he was underwriting, he simply opened Vertical IQ every day. Eventually, it became part of his normal workflow … what he called “muscle memory.”
Chris takes a similar approach: Bookmark Vertical IQ. Save key industries as Favorites. Set alerts and notifications so useful information comes to you instead of requiring you to remember to look for it.
Dan recommends batching the work. Instead of researching right before every meeting, block an hour on your calendar and prepare for several calls at once. You can do the same with prospecting and email outreach.
Most importantly, don’t think that “using Vertical IQ” means reading an entire Industry Profile. Dan’s advice is to “start small.” Pick two or three useful points, use them in a conversation, and build from there. The goal isn’t to consume more information; it’s to find something that improves your next conversation.
Experienced users help build stronger teams
For banking leaders, perhaps the biggest takeaway from our panel was that adoption doesn’t happen simply because employees are told to use Vertical IQ. They need to experience its value firsthand.
Shauna shared a great example of how her bank puts Vertical IQ into practice through an initiative called “Tune In Tuesday.” Her manager assigns focused activities — identify priority industries, subscribe to notifications, review Current Conditions, and share an insight with a business owner — then brings the team together to discuss what they learned. A small incentive helped generate interest, but what ultimately kept Shauna engaged was seeing the value she could deliver to business owners.
Dan recommended a similar approach: Review platform usage, identify highly engaged users, and invite them to show colleagues how they use Industry Intelligence and how it has contributed to a win. He also incorporates Vertical IQ into call preparation meetings by asking what the team learned and helping them identify useful talking points when they come up empty.
This creates a practical adoption cycle: Set the expectation. Create the activity. Coach it. Generate a first win. Celebrate it. Then turn that success into a habit.
Just as importantly, leaders shouldn’t mistake a lack of confidence for resistance. Mark recalled a team member who worried she might “break” the platform. His advice was simple: Get in, explore, use the Resource Center, attend training, and learn by doing. That’s how confidence — and adoption — grow.
Experience should keep evolving
After listening to four experienced bankers explain how they use Vertical IQ, one thing became clear: The right information makes experience even more powerful. It helps bankers connect industry trends to a client’s strategy, understand why a financial benchmark matters, anticipate an underwriter’s questions, turn risk factors into financing conversations, and uncover insights others might miss.
Vertical IQ isn’t something you graduate from once you’ve accumulated enough years in banking. It’s a resource to build into the habits and expertise you’ve developed throughout your career. As Chris advised during the panel, take advantage of the tools available to “make yourself better and enhance your career.” Whether you’ve been in banking for five years or 35, that’s advice worth following!
Want to level up your bank’s game? Request a Vertical IQ demo today!
Image credit: vitaly-gariev; unsplash