Marketing Private Banking Services to Family Businesses

Family businesses, whether private or public, are a major component of the global economic system. Since shares tend to be closely held, these owners constitute a unique private banking market of highly concentrated wealth that has, to date, been undeserved. Given the pending, worldwide retirement of the Cold War generation, many of these businesses will either recapitalize or change hands, liberating a great deal of previously illiquid capital as well as destabilizing many historical financial relationships. Beyond this significant temporal opportunity, family‐owned businesses constitute an important and ongoing market for service providers of all types. Critical to the success of any marketing effort directed towards these businesses will be the overt recognition of the unique and eclectic characteristics of the enterprises themselves and the families that control them. Traditional relationship management practices will not prove sufficient. Successful entities will re‐examine their historical, product‐driven sales tactics and reorganize them into actual marketing strategies based on the needs, issues and characteristics of the family system client. Entities that ignore these differentiating elements are likely to experience significant frustration as well as missed opportunities, as this emerging market reaches full flower.