How Brokers Can Better Understand Business Clients’ Financial Needs and Goals

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August 10, 2023

Targeted advice requires in-depth insight to understand each business client’s financial needs and strategic goals. But how do you gain this crucial understanding as a broker? Here, we outline essential strategies to help you thoroughly understand your clients’ priorities, challenges, and aspirations.

Strategies for Gaining Insight into Clients’ Financial Priorities

Go beyond surface-level conversations to truly grasp where your client stands today and where they aim to be in the future financially.

Ask Probing Questions

An obvious yet underutilised tactic. Ask thoughtful questions about their business model, industry landscape, processes, historical financial decisions, pain points, and objectives across all facets, from operations to marketing.

Conduct Preparatory Research

Analysing the client’s sector landscape, competitors, target audience, and past financial performance provides a better context to interpret their needs. Review their website, press articles, product offerings, leadership team, and existing funding relationships.

Review Financial Statements in Depth

Look beyond the numbers to identify positive and negative trends impacting performance, liquidity, creditworthiness, and stability. Assess how these tie back to business operations and strategic decisions.

Observe Operations and Processes

Tour facilities, meet the leadership team, and observe workflows. This reveals strengths, inefficiencies, and blockers first-hand. Equally, gain IT, HR, inventory, and supply chain insights.

Identify Future Plans and Objectives

Discuss short and long-term plans to understand expected capital requirements, high-priority investments, new market entries, product innovations, and other strategic moves. This long-term approach will help you understand your business client’s financial needs and goals at a fundamental level.

Steps to Gain a 360-Degree View:

Make understanding the client’s complete financial picture a priority, not just their immediate funding needs.
Dedicate time for in-depth discussions instead of short Q&A sessions. Seek to engage, not just extract information.
Identify client priorities across growth, risk management, liquidity, profitability, taxes, compliance, and efficiency.
Note apparent disconnects between goals and existing strategies that your guidance can address.
Maintain an open and non-judgmental approach even when financial decisions seem illogical to build trust.
Re-validate your understanding over time as clients scale or markets shift.

With commitment and utilising these strategies, brokers gain invaluable perspective into each client’s financial world, enabling tailored advice to meet their unique needs and goals. Let multifi support your clients’ success with funding tailored for crucial business milestones.