After 35 years in banking, Tom is bringing his industry expertise, passion for technology, and commitment to helping others succeed to the Vertical IQ Customer Success team.
When Tom Bowman began his banking career in 1991, he never imagined he’d still be in the industry more than three decades later. In fact, his original ambition was to run his own advertising agency.
But a little career advice from two older sisters who worked in banking changed his trajectory. They suggested that banking experience would look great on his résumé, so he took a job as a teller at a small community bank in his home state of Oregon.
Thirty-five years later, Tom has built an impressive banking career spanning retail bank management, sales leadership, mortgage lending, business development, and commercial lending. Now, as Vertical IQ’s newest customer success manager, he’s combining those decades of banking experience with two of his greatest passions: technology and helping people succeed.
A banking career built on growth and relationships
Tom’s career took off at Washington Mutual, where he spent approximately 15 years progressing through roles in customer service, training, branch management, and regional sales leadership. Eventually, he relocated from Oregon to Florida to oversee sales across 152 banking offices in the Atlanta and Central Florida markets.
He later joined Wells Fargo as a branch manager before moving to Fidelity Bank, which subsequently became Ameris Bank. There, his career evolved into business lending, giving him firsthand experience with the challenges of developing business relationships, identifying opportunities, and helping business owners achieve their goals.
Throughout his career, Tom discovered that his greatest professional satisfaction came not simply from his own success, but from helping others become more successful. “I love listening to clients or employees, hearing the struggles that they have, and then trying to utilize my experience to help them,” Tom explains.
That mindset ultimately led him to Vertical IQ.
From Vertical IQ power user to customer success manager
Tom was already a longtime Vertical IQ user before joining the company, having relied on its Industry Intelligence during his years as a banker.
A self-described technology enthusiast, Tom was often the person encouraging colleagues to embrace tools like Vertical IQ and discover how they could improve their performance. “I love new technology, and if I see value in it, I like to spread the word,” he says.
For Tom, Vertical IQ’s greatest value was helping him become more knowledgeable about a client’s industry without spending countless hours conducting research.
Early in his banking career, he built relationships with accountants and CPAs by immersing himself in their industry, learning their terminology, understanding their challenges, and becoming a trusted resource. It was an effective strategy but an extremely time-consuming one.
Vertical IQ changed that equation.
“Vertical IQ allows you to quickly gather the information that you need to be that trusted advisor … and not have to spend hours and hours on research ahead of time,” Tom explains.
Before client meetings, Tom regularly reviewed the relevant Industry Profile, focusing on chapters like Current Conditions, Industry Trends and Challenges, Financial Benchmarks, and Industry Terms. He also printed out Industry Profiles to share at client meetings and annual reviews, sparking more strategic conversations about business opportunities, potential risks, and long-term financial planning. And by subscribing to Quarterly Email Alerts on relevant industries, he found meaningful, value-added reasons to stay in touch with clients throughout the year.
“Not only will they continue to do business with us, but they will also do more business with us and send others to do business with us,” he says of clients who consistently receive valuable insights from their bankers.
Helping bankers get more from their technology
A recent experience underscored Tom’s enjoyment of helping others succeed and crystallized his career move to Vertical IQ.
As part of a team tasked with proposing an innovative technology solution to bank executives, Tom helped develop a concept for using AI-powered role-playing tools to improve bankers’ sales preparation and client interactions.
Although leadership liked the idea, they raised a familiar concern: Would it become another technology investment that employees failed to use? Tom believed the answer came down to training, support, and adoption.
Too often, he observed, financial institutions invest in powerful tools without giving employees the guidance they need to understand their value and incorporate them into everyday workflows.
That realization reinforced his interest in helping bankers get more out of the technology solutions already available to them. When an opportunity arose to join Vertical IQ, the fit seemed natural. “My background in banking means I know the challenges that banks have; I know the problems and the pitfalls,” Tom says. “This Customer Success role allows me to teach them simple ways to use Vertical IQ to help them overcome those challenges.”
Building confidence at every career stage
Having spent his entire professional career in banking, Tom understands that both new and experienced bankers can benefit from Industry Intelligence, albeit in different ways.
For newer bankers, Tom notes that Vertical IQ dramatically shortens the learning curve, helping them quickly understand unfamiliar industries, identify opportunities, and approach client conversations with greater confidence.
“It took me years to get to that place of confidence, to understand an industry, what was important to a business, and how a business works,” Tom recalls. “Vertical IQ gives you all of that information in just a few minutes.”
But with technology, AI, and economic conditions rapidly reshaping industries, Tom emphasizes that even the most veteran banker can still benefit from using Industry Intelligence from Vertical IQ.
“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing this,” Tom says. “There is no way that you can stay on top of all these industries on your own. Vertical IQ makes it fast and simple to get up to speed on the latest details about an industry so that you can provide even long-time clients with more tailored guidance.”
A passion for coaching and customer success
For Tom, joining Vertical IQ represents an opportunity to focus on what he has always enjoyed most about banking: helping people grow. Whether training colleagues, mentoring employees, or even coaching youth sports, he finds satisfaction in sharing knowledge and watching others put it into practice. “I like seeing people take the information that you’re able to share and go out and use it,” he says.
Now, instead of helping individual business owners succeed as a banker, Tom will help financial institutions and their teams utilize Vertical IQ to become more effective, confident, and successful in serving their clients.
“This allows me to do what I was always truly passionate about as a banker: help my customers succeed,” he says. “Now, my customers are banks.”
With his extensive banking experience, firsthand knowledge of Vertical IQ, and genuine enthusiasm for helping others succeed, Tom is a welcome addition to our Customer Success team.
Please join us in welcoming Tom Bowman to Vertical IQ!