Last month I met a solid company. Three years of profitability, a strong client portfolio, a robust growth trend. They came back from a bank meeting empty-handed. The problem wasn’t the business model. The problem was the file.
Bankers are people who understand business well. But when making credit decisions, they don’t rely on intuition — they look at pages. If those pages aren’t properly prepared, even the best business gets rejected.
What Do Banks Look For?
1. Financial Model
Not a single-page income statement. A three-to-five-year projection with scenario-based logic. Where do the company’s growth assumptions come from? Is there coherent reasoning behind the numbers?
Most companies sit down at the table without building this model. The banker builds his own model in his head — and most of the time writes a scenario against the company.
2. Repayment Story
“We’ll pay it back” isn’t enough. The cash flow projection must demonstrate repayment through numbers. Debt service coverage must be clear. Which month, from which source, how much?
If you don’t write this story, the banker writes it. And his version of your story will be worse than yours.
3. Management Team
Banks don’t just lend to businesses — they lend to teams. Who manages the risk? What’s the track record? Is there a succession plan?
A well-prepared team presentation can make a real difference in a credit decision.
Conclusion
Business success and banking success require different languages. The same business, presented differently, can receive completely different responses.
This is not about embellishment. It’s about being able to tell your story in the language the other party understands.
The bank doesn’t reject you. It rejects a file that speaks an unfamiliar language.
