All -
Most of you have been as rightly appalled by these videos, as I have been. Many of you have made very good comments here and for that, I appreciate your remarks. I just want to note, for the record so to speak, why the bankers in these videos disgraced themselves and their banks so much: they made one of the greatest mistakes you can in sales or in business, in general – – trying to answer questions you have NO IDEA how to answer. Rather than “looking slightly less knowledgeable,” these bankers all committed the ultimate business sin of trying to appear competent about something they clearly were not. It’s perfectly OKAY to say you “don’t know” or “I’ll have to look into that” or “You’ll need to speak with our specialist on that. Here, let me call him for you.” Unfortunately, those things really didn’t happen much in these videos. In a couple, the bankers also contradicted themselves and even disparaged other programs their banks offer instead of staying “objective” on all their products and services and trying to find the best one for their potential customer.
Some of have said that these videos might be a little “unfair” as branch employees shouldn’t be held to the standards of a commercial loan officer or a small business lending specialist… to this I’d simply point out that it is the banks in these videos (and across the American landscape) that point to their branches as their “distribution points” for their products and services. That’s the business model THEY chose. Maybe it’s time they train their people better in them and NOT subject America’s small business owners to such ignorance. The only thing worse than bad information is misinformation, and we now can all see from my simple sampling that banks are committing these heinous acts regularly – – several of which, even we, as taxpayers, are “propping-up.” No wonder most small business owners are starting to turn a distrustful eye toward their bank.
It’s unfortunate that these actions occurred on these undercover videos, but at least they occurred to me and not some business owner really needing the help of their bank. Thanks again for your encouraging words and for your trust in us… in our exclusive focus on financing commercial property for America’s business owners – – as the “entrepreneurial bankers” – – you can expect straight answers from us always. Take care.
- Chris
Don says:
Did you interview any bankers that had a clue?
Braudis Lee Pegram says:
Again, excellent!
Al Acitelli says:
Here is what a viewer would have seen if the actual lender happened to be in when Chris made his visit:
“Oh, yeah, we like those kind of properties.”
“Yes, we’re in the business of making commercial real estate loans.”
“Yeah, I think we can do that loan.”
“Sure, I’d love to see that deal.”
“Your deal sounds interesting. I wouldn’t mind taking a look.”
“Yeah, we’ve done deals like that before.”
“You know, I think I can fit that deal in!”
“The market is tight right now, but I think you have something we could lend on.”
“Things are loosening up a bit!”
Bank lenders give out nothing but happy talk with weasel words that don’t commit to anything but imply there’s a deal to be made.
I would have loved to see Chris take on a real lender and follow up on the weasel statements and make the lender real uncomfortable.
Once the borrower dies the death of a thousand cuts in the application and documentation process, piling papers on the lenders desk who loves to at least look busy to his superiors, he will get the sorrowful phone call with one of the following statements:
“I’m sorry, but we’ve got to pass on this one.”
“I can’t give you specifics, but your request doesn’t meet our lending criteria at this time.”
“We not the kind of lender you need.”
“I just couldn’t get it past our committee.”
“One of the committee members got burned on that type of deal.”
Right. Like they ever were really going to do the deal . . .