Give Every Business Client a 12-Month Relationship Roadmap
Business bankers tell us the same thing all the time: it’s hard to get clients to engage.
The problem often isn’t the strength of the relationship. It’s that the banker and client have fallen into a transactional communication cycle.
The banker reaches out to “check in” or because there’s a product they want to discuss. Neither gives the business owner much reason to engage.
Over time, clients become conditioned to meet with their banker when they need something—a loan, a new account, help with a payment issue, or another banking service.
The relationship may be strong. But the interaction is still largely transactional.
What if instead, every business client had a personalized 12-month plan for improving their business—and their banker helped them execute it?
That’s the idea behind the 9Lenses 12-Month Relationship Roadmap.
From a banking relationship to a business plan
The Relationship Roadmap starts with understanding the business—not its banking products.
What are the client’s goals? Where are they trying to grow? What challenges are getting in the way? How are they managing cash flow, payments, collections, fraud risk and other important areas of the business?
9Lenses gathers this business intelligence directly from the client and uses it to create a personalized roadmap of priorities, recommended actions and potential solutions for the next 12 months.
The result is something tangible the banker can bring back to the client:
“Based on what we’ve learned about your business, here’s what we recommend you focus on over the next 12 months.”
That’s a very different conversation from, “Just checking in to see if you need anything.”
Give clients something they can actually use
A Relationship Roadmap isn’t a list of products the bank wants to sell. It’s organized around what the business is trying to accomplish. For example, a business may have three priorities:- Improve cash flow
- Increase profit margins
- Grow revenue
Create a reason to meet every quarter
The roadmap also solves another problem for bankers: What do I talk to this client about next? Instead of reaching out every few months to “check in,” the banker has a natural reason to reconnect. How are we progressing against the plan? Did we complete the priorities we identified last quarter? What’s changed in the business? Do we need to adjust the plan? What should we tackle next? Now the banker isn’t trying to manufacture a reason for another meeting. The client’s own roadmap creates the reason. And each conversation builds on the previous one.Make year-round advice scalable
This type of relationship management isn’t easy for bankers to do on their own. A business banker may work with clients across dozens of industries, each with different goals, challenges and operating models. They also have to understand an expanding set of solutions across lending, deposits, Treasury Management, merchant services, cards, insurance and other areas. Expecting every banker to independently connect all of that information and create a personalized business plan for every client isn’t realistic. That’s where AI can be valuable. The 9Lenses AI Banker Assistant automatically creates the 12-Month Relationship Roadmap based on a detailed understanding of the client’s goals, challenges, processes and needs. It gives the banker structure while keeping the relationship—and the conversation—human.A different kind of banking relationship
A strong relationship is important. Being responsive when a client needs something is important. But advisory relationships go further. The banker understands where the business is trying to go, brings recommendations the client may not have considered, and helps them make progress throughout the year. The Relationship Roadmap makes that visible and actionable. It gives the business a plan. And it gives the banker a reason to keep coming back with value. If your bank gave every business client a personalized 12-month roadmap, would they ever leave? 🤔Latest Posts
