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The other night I went to a meeting of the Turnaround  Management Association.  The program was titled “Is the Turnaround Community Missing the Mark?”  The presenters, SVP’s of Special Assets from M&I Bank, Park Bank, Associated Bank as well US Bank, had a unified message.  They are all very busy – the current economy has strained a greater number of their bank’s relationships than ever before.  The sheer volume of the transactions that they are handling now is staggering.  But the one thing that each of them agreed upon is that by the time the relationship lands in their department there is very little left to be done.  They have to move quickly to preserve the value left to reduce losses, so frequently their interaction with turnaround professionals at that point is to aid in either an orderly liquidation or a sale of the company.

The question was then asked by one of the attendees “If it seems that most of the loans are at the point of liquidation when they arrive in your department, where in that continuum of Valued Client to Liquidation would it be better for the Turnaround Professional to engage with your customer?”  Tim Bruckner of M&I Special Assets agreed with Paul Niedermeyer from US Bank – the single greatest impact on an account can be made by the commercial lending officer.  They agreed that if the line officer takes action more quickly with accounts that are not performing, fewer loans are referred to special assets.

As an outsourced CFO, I’m not a turnaround specialist, but by providing the financial guidance and advice that the business needs, I help the bank customer increase their cash and increase their profits.  I can provide them with the clarity they need to make the hard decisions before they become the impossible decisions.  CPA’s simply can’t provide that help, they haven’t worked in a private company environment.

Bankers often remark that they have at least three customers that need the kind of financial guidance that I can provide.  As a banker, perhaps you should as yourself "has that number changed?   Have those clients transformed their financial management – timely financial statements, updated cash flow projections, gross margin analyses, etc. so that they are no longer 'watch' accounts?"  I understand that there may be a reluctance to “referring” a client to an outsource CFO.  But introducing the customer to a business resource is a service that pays dividends, not only by being a banker that has helped their client through a tough time, but also by moving that customer back along the continuum towards Valued Customer and away from Special Asset. 
There is no cost and no obligation whatsoever for my assessment of your customer.  Simply by calling your customer and saying “Can we meet for lunch?  I have someone I’d like to introduce to you” may be the first step that Tim and Paul agreed would be the best first step in helping troubled clients.