Building a C&I Team from a Standing Start

Earlier in my career I became the first dedicated commercial and industrial (C&I) lender at a commercial bank, focused on manufacturers and professional services firms in New Jersey and New York City. Today I am helping build C&I lending in Florida. Being first at something teaches you what a team needs long before there is a team. These are the lessons I keep coming back to.

Specialization is a promise to the client

C&I lending is different from lending against property. The collateral moves, the cash flow cycles and the questions are about operations: inventory, receivables, customer concentration, margins and management depth. When a bank commits to dedicated C&I bankers, it is promising business owners that the person across the table understands how their company runs. A team earns its credibility by keeping that promise one conversation at a time.

Credit is a partner, not a hurdle

The healthiest lending teams I have seen treat credit officers as partners from the first conversation, not as a checkpoint at the end. When relationship managers and credit people share an understanding of what a good deal looks like, everyone moves faster and the surprises get smaller. I would rather bring a credit partner an honest early read on a business than a polished package that hides the hard questions.

Hire for judgment and curiosity

Technical skills can be taught. I learned mine in a formal commercial credit training program, and I am grateful for it. What is harder to teach is curiosity about how businesses work and the judgment to know when something does not add up. When I think about the people I want on a team, I look for those qualities first: people who ask a second and third question, who are comfortable saying “I don’t know yet,” and who care about getting the answer right.

Build a reputation before you build volume

A new lending team is tempted to measure itself by how quickly it grows. I think the first goal should be reputation: being known in a market as bankers who are responsive, consistent and straightforward. Accountants, attorneys and business owners talk to one another. A team that does what it says it will do, including delivering difficult news promptly, earns a kind of trust that no marketing can buy.

Patience is a strategy

Commercial relationships take time. Many of the best ones start years before a company actually needs a bank, with a conversation, an introduction or a bit of useful perspective offered freely. Teams that are patient enough to invest in those early conversations tend to be the ones still standing when the market turns.

Teach what you were taught

Every lender I know benefited from someone who explained a credit memo, walked them through a difficult call or let them sit in on a tough meeting. Building a team means passing that on. The most lasting thing a team leader leaves behind is not a portfolio. It is people who know how to think about credit and who will teach the next group the same way.

Views expressed here are my own and do not represent the views of my employer. Content is for general information only and is not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.