Better GTM starts here

Career Narrative

Started as a commercial loan officer at 24. Turned around an underperforming market in Tuscaloosa. Joined current bank as EVP of Commercial Banking at 38, became CEO at 48. Grew the bank from $800M to $7.2B through organic growth and four acquisitions. Entire career in Alabama banking.

Education

BS Finance, University of Alabama. MBA, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management.

• State-chartered community bank, FDIC-insured
• $7.2B assets, 47 branches, 820 employees
• Birmingham metro, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Mobile
• 60% consumer, 30% small business, 10% commercial/CRE
• Actively evaluating acquisitions in Mississippi and Tennessee

• President and CEO, 10 years in role
• Direct approval up to $2M. Board approval above $2M or multi-year over $5M.
• Signs every technology contract over $500K
• CIO reports to CFO, not directly to Rob (structural buffer from tech decisions)
• Board trusts his judgment but increasingly asking about digital strategy

• Core: Fiserv Premier (on-prem, contract renewal in 8 months)
• Digital banking: NCR Digital Insight (aging, complaints rising)
• Lending: Abrigo (recently upgraded from 15-year-old Access database)
• Cloud posture: Minimal. Skeptical of cloud for banking data.
• API readiness: Low. No API strategy. Integrations are file-based.

• Conservative risk tolerance. Has seen two competitors fail from aggressive growth.
• Gut-instinct decisions tempered by CFO data. Trusts people, not slide decks.
• Evaluates vendors through peer references. Calls CEO friends before any decision over $500K.
• Information diet: American Banker, Alabama Bankers Association, peer CEO dinners. Does not use LinkedIn.
• Will change if inaction is riskier than action. Not motivated by excitement.

Top Challenges

• Deposit competition: Losing younger customers to Chime and Marcus. Net new checking accounts down 12% YoY.
• Core contract renewal: Fiserv renewal in 8 months. CFO wants to negotiate harder. Rob isn't sure he has leverage.
• Talent: Lost best commercial lender to a fintech. IT team averages age 52.

Competitive Anxiety

A $4B competitor in Birmingham launched a slick mobile app with Alkami and is running aggressive digital marketing. Rob's board chair forwarded the competitor's Instagram ad and asked "Why don't we have this?"

• Active trigger: Fiserv renewal + board pressure converging into first serious tech evaluation in 5 years
• Budget: $8.5M annually (11% of non-interest expense)
• Buying committee: CEO (final sign-off), CFO, CIO, CRO, General Counsel
• Sales cycle: 9-15 months. Rob once took 22 months to select a treasury management vendor.
• Dealbreakers: No Fiserv integration = dead. No peer references at similar banks = dead.

Language That Resonates

• "We work with 40 community banks your size across the Southeast."
• "Here is what First National in Jackson said about their experience with us."
• "This integrates natively with Fiserv Premier. No middleware required."
• "You will not need to hire additional staff to manage this."

Language That Repels

• "Disrupt your legacy infrastructure."
• "AI-powered" anything without a specific, provable use case.
• "Move fast and break things."
• "Our Series C funding..." (Rob doesn't care about your investors; he cares about your P&L)

Objection Patterns

• "We already have something that does this." (Default: inertia. Show specific capability gaps with dollar impact.)
• "What happens if your company goes under?" (Resolve with financial transparency and escrow provisions.)
• "Let me talk to some people first." (This is a buying signal. Offer peer CEO references.)