What should business owners expect from a commercial banking relationship?
Specifically, you should build a relationship with a banker that anticipates your needs and responds with creative solutions before a crisis. You may ask your banker for a certain loan, and if the banker simply fulfills your request, is he or she really providing you with what your business needs? Perhaps not. The fact is, your job is to run your company, and the banker’s job is to outfit your business with financial solutions you can’t keep up with all the products and services in the market today. You shouldn’t have to do your job and your banker’s job. That said, your banker should know your business well enough to understand what products and services best suit your business objectives. This leads into another key quality that good commercial bankers share: a proactive attitude. Your banker should listen more than he or she talks, and he or she should ask questions about your industry. Most importantly, you want a banker that balances his or her interests in the bank while serving
