Nabbing a sales job is exciting. The same pressure that lured you into the workplace causes stress, though. For anyone responsible for drumming up successful business loan candidates, this is the backbone of your excitement-fear combination.
It could be said that there are plenty of opportunities to find leads. As big corporations laid off 4 million people since the 1990’s, small businesses created 8 million jobs. In fact, nearly 50% of all new business since 1982 are small.
That means more doors of opportunity are available for you to close those loans. Sure, companies sell business loan leads. That is one excellent manner to create business. The key is determining the quality of such lead generation.
Educate yourself on the types of funding for which small businesses, whether long-established or new start-up, may qualify. This will make you a more valuable resource to the small business owner. They are already overwhelmed taking responsibility for everything from writing a business plan to deciding what fixtures to put in their stores.
If they do not yet have secured capital then they are probably one-man-banding it right now. That means they are short-staffed, because they still lack the financial resources to pay anyone to work for them.
In general, new startups are a risky bet for big corporate banks, and nearly never on their radar as a target for their lending. Only 27% of applicants will receive the nod from the big banks, or any bank for that matter.
That means other sources of funding become more appealing. Sometimes, they are detrimental more than helpful, and could undo the business down the road. For instance, unwitting new business heads may ease peacefully into the hands of an angel investor or venture capitalist.
Sure, there is nothing wrong with angel investors or venture capitalists, except that it eats into the long-worked-for rewards, the profits. If you can help the small business entrepreneur keep more of their money then you are doing them a service, and perhaps helping your bottom line at the same time.
Another way to transform the business loan leads into successes is to work your sales angles. First you have the knowledge that most loans are for small businesses. Next up, you know that they are getting turned down for bank loans and may turn to investors, who will take their shirt and earnings.
Working other angles of the puzzle may involve seeing challenges as opportunities. For instance, an individual who has poor credit from prior failed business attempts that ruined their personal finances may not qualify for any loans.
Perhaps locating lines of credit that they borrow and pay back on an as-needed basis will help them rebuild their trust with financial institutions. From there, work through the responsibilities of borrowing, such as maybe stacking small loans as needed, while rebuilding their credit and business creditworthiness.
From there, look at leveraging the revenue of high earning small businesses for credit. For instance, a small boutique that needs to buy merchandise is treated far differently than a huge conglomerate department store.
The department store is offered merchandise at a huge discount, and given the luxury of buying on credit. The small boutique that only has space for 3 items must pay far higher prices and settle up on its whole tab in cash before any merchandise is shipped. That can cause a huge cash flow problem.
That is a great case where it is fairly easy to turn business loan leads into successes. At some point having built a rapport with these companies may pay off. This is an example of a way to work a relationship until it is ready to bear fruit.
The other side of the equation starts to emerge with respect to getting the top business loan leads. It turns out this relationship-focused, long-term soft sales approach leads to higher quality loans.
The reason is that many outfits are offering up business loans. The higher quality businesses that qualify for them have the option to be very picky and choose with whom they want to do business.
Does your outfit spit spam-canned voice mails at a shop during its business hours? Then it is time for a new approach. Your very practice might be turning off potential business, make your motives questionable, and essentially lost great business loans in the process.
Instead, take time establishing the companies that are not only ripe for a business loan, but are high-caliber borrowers. They have high-earning potential, a track record of building strong businesses in the past, or are wise in their investments.
In short, when a potential customer of yours can tell the difference between a business and an expense, and even successfully traverse financial mistakes, that is a sign of a company and individual worthy of doing business with you.
You want to make sure you have a low risk and high reward potential built into your equation. Even high earners, however, may not be the most responsible. That can spell trouble for you. Get back to basics of sound lending practices, and ensure that you are doing your part as an informed salesperson and loan originator.
That personal relationship hinted at earlier comes into play here again. You want to stay in touch with the business owners that you already have lent to for several reasons. The most compelling is to stop problems before they get out of hand.
Small business owners may have a lot of pride int their business, even in a sinking ship. They may not ask for help. If you build honest trust with them, then they may confide in you when there is an issue. At that point, you have the opportunity to originate new loans, and help them see their financial picture for what it truly is.
Find the highest quality candidates you can. From there build a business whereby businesses come to rely upon you for more than just opening and closing loans. Build relationships for decades of business.