Enriched Shareholders

Our strategy has worked since the very beginning. The results speak for themselves.

Our “Why” at this firm – our very reason for being – is different than all the rest. How we accomplish our goals is different, too. We set tall targets and strive to accomplish them as a team. It’s been a winning strategy since 2000, and the results we saw in 2018 gave us no reason to doubt it.

Market by market, Pinnacle sees success wherever we grow. Clients get consistent service from associates engaged in an award-winning culture.

Organic growth is always the primary focus, and in fact we could comfortably grow our firm just by continuing to grow our business in the markets we serve now. But we have our sights set on additional high-growth areas where we believe business owners and individuals are looking for the distinctive brand of service we deliver.

This year we added Columbia, SC and Washington, D.C. to our existing wish list of Richmond, Virginia Beach and Atlanta. While 2018 wasn’t kind to our stock, and therefore our appetite for acquisitions, we remain open to the idea of entering one or more of these markets through an existing bank or on a de novo basis.

Our remarkable organic growth is driven by strategically designed goals we set for the entire firm. They’re based on revenue growth, earnings growth and asset quality, the three metrics we believe are most tightly correlated to long-term shareholder value creation.

We grow earnings, in part, by growing the earnings capacity of our firm. Once again, hiring is the key to making this happen. It’s how we have built this firm from inception. Hiring experienced, successful financial professionals with substantial books of business serves two of our primary goals:

1. It allows for rapid growth as they bring clients from their previous banks to Pinnacle. Loans, deposits, fee-based services, personal banking — everything is available to us when clients follow a banker they trust.
2. It improves our asset quality, because our new advisors have the wisdom of experience, they know their books of business well, and they bring over their best clients. Any troubled loans get left behind.

Our approach to business is people-centric. It’s the right thing to do for clients, associates and the communities we serve. Everyone deserves a great place to work and do business.

As it happens, it’s also historically been more profitable.

Because of our unique underlying fundamentals, we can go toe-to-toe and outperform much bigger firms by competing not on price, but by giving clients a level of personal service and advice they just can’t get anywhere else.

That kind of service breeds loyalty and complete, long-term relationships. According to the Dale Carnegie Research Institute, trust and positive relationships are the leading factors in customer loyalty.

From Carnegie's 2018 trust survey

Those numbers and more show that people are more likely to do further business with a company, more likely to recommend it and more willing to pay a premium for services if they have a good relationship with their salesperson

Now, let's take a look at our own numbers from internal client surveys to see how we fare.

From Pinnacle's 2018 client surveys

But don't take our word for it. Greenwich Associates found much the same thing in its research.

From Greenwich Associates Research in Nashville

This is demonstrable proof that a focus on clients leads to more business than a focus on sales. It’s proof that we’re onto a smart strategy and have been for 19 years.

As long as we keep delivering on our promises — to each other, to our clients and to our shareholders — Pinnacle will always remain distinctive.