10/26/2026
The best way to keep a good client is to let someone else lend to him for 18 months.
Most bankers I say that to think I have it backwards.
Picture a body shop owner. He owns his building, worth about 2.4mm. He owes his bank 1.3mm, and the loan matures in January.
He's never been late on a payment.
But he lost his biggest fleet contract last year, so on paper his numbers don't clear the bar for a renewal.
His banker likes him. His banker also can't renew him.
Here's where it usually goes wrong. The banker goes quiet and hopes for an extension. The owner finds a lender on his own in December. Now the banker is the guy who let him down.
Here's the other way it can go.
The banker calls him in October and says, "I can't do this one right now. Let's get you a bridge, rebuild the year, and come back to me."
1.3mm on a 2.4mm building is about 54% loan to value. That's plenty of room for a private lender to say yes.
Eighteen months later the new contracts are on his tax return. The bank takes him back. And he remembers who told him the truth early.
Bankers, when a client you like falls outside your bank's line, do you tell him early, or wait to see if credit will bend?
