My primary business in commercial real estate appraisal. I have somewhere between 30-40 banks that are customers, including community, regional and national scope banks.
In 2008 I was an organizer that helped start a new community bank. The bank is up and running now.
About that time, one of our local community bank clients found out I was involved with the new bank and cut me from their approved appraiser roster. Said bank was one of my oldest client (15+ years) and responsible for probably 25% of our revenues. It stung us real good business-wise but it hurt even more on a personal level. We have adjusted and are ok, but they are a fat source of business in my market and I want to pursue them.
I don’t sit on the board of the new bank do to these other bank clients I have. I am not privlaged to the inner workings of the new bank. I don’t steer customers away from the other banks to the new bank, never have. I tried to explain this to the president/founder of the bank that cut me but it never went anywhere. I’ve talked to the chief credit guy with the same response. It seems the prez is the vindictive sort who took my involvement in the new bank personally. It was not personal, it was an investment for me and a chance to learn what it takes to start a new bank, which was a fascinating experience. I actually have stock in and loans with the bank that canned me. To this day, I have never bad-mouthed them. No burning of the bridges.
Four years later now and I’m thinking of approaching them to get back in. I have my pride but I will humble myself to get back in. Kissing ass seems like a daily occurance when you are in business. No other of my many bank client has done this to me or even cared. Everyone I have talked to about it kind of laughs at the president for being so vindictive. I would like to say “who needs them and they can KMA” but I still do with things be pretty slow.
My question for the ST business advisors, what would be you plan once you get in front of the president? How would you win them back? Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?
come clean with the dude on why you helped with the new bank, feign contrition if you like, and tell him very tactfully why letting you back into his good graces is good for him.
I am surprised you were a community organizer though.
I’m not saying that you don’t deserve doing business with them but you were partially responsible for starting a business that directly competes with his. I’m curious how you might feel if one of your people did that aka, I can see his side a bit.
There might be nothing you can do to change his feelings but I guess I’d say again that you have no involvement whatsoever with that bank and are willing to cut him a stellar deal in order to get back in and hope for the best.
I have always been very careful of my dealings in the community so I don’t alienate clients, that includes political things, social things-anything where I am visible. I have been very supportive of their bank, referring many potential clients to them. This one really blind-sided me as I felt like what I did on my time was my business and I was a fringe player. But I do see your point.
My 2 cents would be to go in, show him what a great job you did for him, discuss what happened, and how it was disappointing to have been dropped, then talk about the future and what you can do for him going forward.
Almost like a timeline. It will remind them (him) of why you had the relationship and give everyone an opportunity to clear the air, as well as discuss the future.
You have nothing to lose, so be contrite about what happened not necessarily what you did or didn’t do.
Go in with a list of customers you referred to him since he cut you off. Demonstrate your integrity. speak about how mutually beneficial it would be to have a reciprocal relationship again. If he continues to act like a child with you then I would assume there is a good chance he does the same thing with his customers. At that point I would stop giving him business and organize a larger bank across the street from his.
Sounds like you have a stubborn customer on your hands in the form of the bank president. If he is the least bit narcissistic as well that could work to your advantage. My thoughts on approaching the situation with him would be:
Request his time to discuss the nature of your business relationship, set the date out a week or 2 from the day you make the request so as to avoid any immediate conflicts on his schedule. Schedule the meeting for a location that is not at his bank or your office, the goal is neutral setting so no one has the home field advantage.
Don’t go in assuming you know why you lost this customer, and don’t go in trying to address the reasons why you think you lost this customer. Ask questions, a lot. Get his first hand account as to why you were removed from the approved appraisers list. Let him list out the reasons you were removed and get them all out there, write them down, and then address them after he is done. It is tempting to address them as he is listing them, but if you let him get them all out in one monologue he may get the satisfaction of venting to you that he has yet to realize.
Don’t kiss ass, it’s not necessary, but if you are directly responsible for the reason you lost him as a customer, take responsibility for your actions. Feign naivete if you have to, help him understand that with the opportunity to help start up a bank you did not realize the impacts it might have to your customers, but rather you were capitalizing on an opportunity to learn more about the challenges your customers face in the banking industry. There is nothing wrong with falling on your sword for your mistakes, but kissing ass won’t get you anywhere.
You are a businessman as is he, but you are both humans and as such it is impossible to separate emotion completely from business. If he is in fact narcissistic then feed into that, but don’t overdo it. Let him know the value of his business both qualitatively (you lose his bank as a reference and a known entity for others to measure you by when considering your services) and quantitatively (you don’t have to reveal everything, but help him understand the revenue impacts to your business losing him as a customer had). Hard to say what the right amount of each to reveal is, only you can know that.
Lastly, ask for the business again. You have previously enjoyed a positive business relationship, if you believe you can get past the reasons you lost this customer (from his perspective) then ask for an opportunity to earn his business again. Make an investment in him as a customer, don’t slash your prices if the value of your work has not changed, but let him know you will personally manage the relationship, execute the work, and add activities that may not have been conducted in the previous relationship (quarterly business reviews, for example).
Hope this helps, it actually helped me think about how I might address a similar situation. I actually had this situation last summer and followed similar steps that worked to some degree, but no matter what process you use, if a customer does not want to return to a relationship there is little that we can do beyond putting forth a good effort. Best of luck.
You mentioned you feel like what you do on your own time is your business. Now this is extreme, but the recent college coaches who lost their jobs might maek the same argument.
My point is when you run a small business, you have to pay attention to what you do. If you feel that what you do on your own time should not matter, you need to align yourself with customers who feel the same way. That means you may lose some customers.
I just fired a supplier because they want to price work directly to my customers. They also want to price work through me because they know I provide a couple of advantages. I told them they can’t have ti both ways. It can potentially affect my sales and I had to adjust accordingly.
You helped build a competitor of one of your valued clients and that client responded by effectively firing you. Ohioclyde provided the best way to try to go back to your client: do not assume to know why they fired you. Ask why they don’t send business your way. I would add that you need ot be ready to discuss what you did.
If you want their business back and you assumed correctly about why they stopped doing business with you, be prepared to tell them you understand what you did and why you won’t do it again. Mor eimportantnly, show them the business you have sent their way.
Maybe banks are different than manufacturing for some reason. But if I had a vendor, let’s say a plater, that went off with a group of other guys and started a shop that was going to be in direct competition with me I’d go find another plater too.
I don’t see this as vindictive at all, just smart business. Doesn’t make much sense to give money and business to someone who has enough time and resources to go out and help start competition for me and has no qualms about doing it.
Again maybe I’m missing something but I wouldn’t even let you back in the door. Everything you saw, heard or picked up in some way is knowledge and knowledge you could use to go out and start another competitor for me.
If him leaving you “Hurt” he did the right thing. Because if you’re hurting, you’re spending more time working and less time starting new ventures that become his competition.
I say forget the effort. As long as he is president I doubt you will get back in and can’t say that I blame him. Seek to replace those lost revenues with new business. You lost a good customer, now go find a new good customer.
I’d also add doing a LOT of research about what the bank president has been saying lately, and use your market knowledge to go in with a pitch that says “I think you’re having issues with x, y and z. Is that right? If so, here’s how I can help you with that.”
You were an organizer of the new bank? Does this mean that you thought “we need another bank, and I should find some folks to start one”? Or were you asked by an acquaintance of some sort to assist them in getting their new project off the ground, so you put some of your own money in and did a “road show” to sell stock to others you know?
In Matt’s example, it is one thing if you started a new plating company and a different one (in my mind) if your buddy wanted to start one and came to you for business advice and you helped him get his new business up and running.
“Or were you asked by an acquaintance of some sort to assist them in getting their new project off the ground, so you put some of your own money in and did a “road show” to sell stock to others you know?”
I’m not trying to downplay my involvement because I was part of it, but I was probably the least rich, least influential and least involved person in the room. It was a way to hobnob with some hotshots and get some cheap stock warrants.
Why not start with showing them how much business/money you have generated for them? Money talks and if you can demonstrate they will make money working with you then that should be an easy sell unless the guy just wants to hold a grudge, then you are hosed.
What percentage of the bank stock did you end up selling to people you knew? Did you account for 10% of the bank stock that went out the door, or 50%? It sounds to me like you were closer to the former.
I guess I am trying to think of discussion points that you might want to share with the guy. But that’s not really the conversation someone above thinks you should have. In the end, you’ll have to decide whether you want to go in and talk about how the two of you might move forward as business partners or whether you think you need to explain your past decision making. Perhaps it will turn into both.
If it were me, I would be ready to inform him of just how much business you have continued to refer him, even though he’s decided to avoid using you as an appraiser, because his bank is still a fine place to do business and ask him to return the courtesy. If he declines, then you’ll just have to decide how much it matters to you…Do you care enough to stop referring his bank? Do you care enough to refinance the debt you have with his bank with one of his competitors? Do you care enough to sell the shares of his bank that you own?
