Your Business Banking Division Deserves a Methodical Approach

You've seen what happens when a bank tries to fix its commercial pipeline with a new product launch or a marketing campaign. The pipeline doesn't budge. Here's why that matters: the problem is almost never awareness — it's process, policy, and positioning. That's where our services begin.

Deposit Growth Strategy

Who this is for: Banks and credit unions whose business deposit portfolio has plateaued or grown below peer benchmarks for two or more consecutive quarters.

Phase 1: Portfolio Diagnostic

We begin by ingesting your current commercial deposit data — account types, balances, tenure, industry codes, and relationship depth. This data is benchmarked against peer institutions in your asset class and market geography. The diagnostic typically reveals three to five segments where deposit growth potential exists but hasn't been captured. Most institutions find that 30-40% of their business deposit base is concentrated in fewer than 15% of their commercial relationships — a concentration risk that also represents a growth ceiling.

Phase 2: Segmentation and Targeting

Using our proprietary segmentation model, we map your addressable market by industry vertical, business size, and cash flow profile. Each segment receives a priority score based on acquisition feasibility, expected deposit volume, and cross-sell potential. The output is a targeting matrix that your business development team can execute against immediately — not an abstract market study, but a ranked list of opportunities with specific outreach recommendations.

Phase 3: Execution and Tracking

We work with your commercial banking team to implement the outreach strategy over a 90-day sprint. This includes refining your treasury management product positioning, training relationship managers on consultative deposit conversations, and establishing a tracking dashboard that measures new account openings, average balances, and retention against targets. At the end of 90 days, we deliver a performance report with recommendations for the next quarter.

Deliverables

  • Peer-benchmarked deposit portfolio analysis
  • Commercial deposit segmentation matrix
  • Treasury management plan templates
  • Relationship manager training modules
  • 90-day performance tracking dashboard

Expected Outcome

Institutions that complete the full deposit growth engagement typically see a 15-25% increase in new business deposit volume within the first 12 months. The segmentation matrix remains a working tool long after the engagement ends — most clients continue using it for 18-24 months of subsequent planning cycles.

Wondering how your deposit portfolio compares to peers?

Request a Benchmark Comparison

Commercial Credit Underwriting Advisory

Who this is for: Institutions where credit decisions vary significantly between underwriters, approval timelines exceed peer benchmarks, or the credit policy hasn't been updated in more than 24 months.

Phase 1: Credit Policy Audit

We review your existing commercial credit policy documentation line by line — approval authorities, risk rating frameworks, collateral valuation methodologies, concentration limits, and exception tracking procedures. The audit identifies gaps where policy ambiguity leads to inconsistent decisions, and it benchmarks your framework against regulatory expectations and peer institution standards. Most community institutions we assess have credit policies that were written for a different portfolio composition than the one they currently manage.

Phase 2: Framework Redesign

Based on audit findings, we rebuild the sections of your credit policy that are causing the most friction. This isn't a cosmetic rewrite — it's a structural redesign of how credit decisions flow through your organization. We establish clear approval thresholds, standardize risk rating definitions, build exception reporting protocols, and create decision trees that reduce the time from application to disposition by 30% or more.

Phase 3: Training and Calibration

A revised policy only works if the people applying it understand the logic behind it. We conduct structured training sessions with your underwriting team, credit committee, and relationship managers — explaining not just what changed, but why each change was made. We then run calibration exercises using anonymized loan files to ensure consistent application across the team.

Deliverables

  • Complete credit policy review document
  • Redesigned approval authority matrix
  • Standardized risk rating framework
  • Exception tracking and reporting system
  • Team training and calibration materials

Expected Outcome

Institutions that complete the credit underwriting advisory engagement report a 20-35% reduction in approval timeline and a measurable improvement in decision consistency — typically assessed through inter-rater reliability scoring on sample files at the 90-day review.

Concerned about consistency in your credit decisions?

Schedule a Credit Policy Discussion

Cash Flow Management Advisory

Who this is for: Banks and credit unions that want to deepen commercial relationships by offering treasury management services that actually solve client-side liquidity problems — particularly for owner-operated and seasonal businesses.

Phase 1: Product and Market Assessment

We evaluate your institution's current treasury management offerings against the actual cash flow needs of the business segments you serve. Think of it this way: many institutions offer the same treasury products as everyone else, but they haven't mapped those products to the specific pain points of their commercial clients. A manufacturing company with 60-day receivables has fundamentally different needs than a restaurant group with daily cash settlement. We identify where your product suite is misaligned with client demand.

Phase 2: Treasury Management Plan Development

We build templated treasury management plans tailored to the three to five most common business profiles in your commercial portfolio. Each plan includes specific product recommendations, projected cash flow impact, fee structures, and implementation timelines. These plans become tools that your relationship managers can customize during client conversations — reducing preparation time and increasing the quality of the recommendation.

Phase 3: Relationship Manager Enablement

The final phase trains your front-line team to have consultative cash flow conversations. We equip relationship managers with diagnostic questions, industry-specific cash flow benchmarks, and presentation materials that position your institution as the advisor — not just the account provider. This phase includes live coaching sessions using real client scenarios.

Deliverables

  • Treasury product-market alignment analysis
  • Segment-specific treasury management plan templates
  • Relationship manager conversation guides
  • Cash flow diagnostic question frameworks
  • Client presentation materials

Expected Outcome

Institutions that deploy treasury management plans see a measurable increase in products-per-relationship — typically moving from 2.1 to 3.4 products within 12 months for the targeted commercial segments. Revenue per relationship grows proportionally, and client retention improves because businesses that use treasury services are significantly less likely to switch institutions.

Ready to turn treasury management into a relationship driver?

Discuss Cash Flow Advisory

SBA Lending Consulting

Who this is for: Community banks and credit unions that have underperforming SBA programs — either due to limited internal expertise, inefficient application workflows, or lack of strategic commitment to the product line.

Phase 1: Program Assessment

We evaluate your institution's current SBA operations from intake through servicing — application volume, approval rates, processing timelines, secondary market activity, and staff expertise levels. This assessment reveals exactly where the bottlenecks exist. The most common finding: institutions with talented lending teams that simply haven't been given the process infrastructure or training to execute SBA efficiently. The talent is there; the system around it isn't.

Phase 2: Pipeline Redesign

We restructure your SBA application pipeline to reduce processing friction at every stage. This includes standardizing document collection checklists, building pre-qualification screens, redesigning the hand-off process between relationship managers and underwriters, and establishing clear timeline benchmarks for each phase. For institutions working with Preferred Lender status, we optimize the delegated authority workflow. For those without PLP status, we build the track record documentation needed to pursue it.

Phase 3: Volume Growth Strategy

Once the pipeline is functioning efficiently, we focus on volume. This phase includes identifying borrower segments in your market that are strong SBA candidates — particularly owner-operated businesses underserved by larger institutions — and building outreach strategies to capture them. We also train relationship managers to identify SBA-eligible opportunities within their existing portfolio, converting conventional loan inquiries into government-guaranteed products where appropriate.

Deliverables

  • SBA program operational assessment
  • Redesigned application pipeline documentation
  • Pre-qualification screening tools
  • Staff training on 7(a), 504, and Express products
  • Borrower segment targeting strategy
  • Secondary market execution recommendations

Expected Outcome

Institutions that complete the SBA consulting engagement typically reduce processing time by 35-50% and increase annual SBA origination volume by 25-45% within the first year. For institutions pursuing PLP status, the documentation and track record built during the engagement positions them for application within 18-24 months.

Want to unlock your SBA program's full potential?

Explore SBA Consulting